


Percy Jackson Prince of Dragons

by KariahDreams



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-27
Updated: 2016-12-16
Packaged: 2018-04-28 09:00:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 60,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5085877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KariahDreams/pseuds/KariahDreams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Instead of the ordinary USA, Percy lives in a world where dragons are abundant as birds and animals and he is able to talk to them. He has a nice life in the ocean with his dragon family and never wanted anything to do with gods. That is until the Labyrinth calls him down and he ends up in the thing he absolutely didn't want to end up in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Its a small dragon world

_Disclaimer, I do not own the characters (minus the dragons). I don’t know why I have to put this, but other fanfiction writers do so I will do it so I am not arrested and taken to prison or whatever they do if I don’t disclaim the characters that I didn’t make up in my head. If someone could tell me why people do this that would be appreciated, but for now enjoy._

For those who read this, you may not recognize my world as your own, because it is not. Some cities might be different or people you may know might be different, but the big thing that sets us all apart, is the dragons. Yes, dragons are real, but no, not just in skeletons or frozen meat like the dinosaurs and mammoths, dragons are alive and are completely everywhere.

    They sit in the trees, they fly around in the air, they steal fish from fisherman in the seas. They are like the birds, there are millions of breeds and they are part us, but no one can talk to them. All except for me.

    According to my brother, after at least one million or so years a child is born that takes the attention of the god of dragons, Athrodox. She would visit and give that one kid a gift to talk to her children. I was that kid. I was given the ability to talk to dragons and her sometimes too.

    Oh by the way, my name is Percy. Percy Jackson. I live in the ocean with my mom and my brother. By the way, they are both dragons. My family is pod of sea titans, big black monsters that look like killer whales. They have no scales, but their skin is thick and smooth looking. Their heads are big, round, and flat with sperm whale teeth and fins protruding from their jaws to give them their powerful bite. Their bodies are usually flat and muscled with tails big and powerful, black and white flukes on the end to make them swim faster. Most people say that they are big, nasty, and territorial, but I know better. They are loyal, brave, and smarter than most of the titan species, even though they can be a little rough and grumpy. As “titans”, as humans call them, they are one of the biggest dragons on the planet along with the land titan, the swamp titan, the sky titan, and the death titan. All look completely different and are very rare thanks to their giveaway size for hunters.

    How did I end up with these monsters? Easy. Once when I was a baby, my birth mother’s boyfriend turned out to be a kidnapper and took advantage of pretty women. We were at the beach at the time and after he got her captive, he to get rid of me by “feeding” me to a mother sea titan and her little chick. The titan was asleep and they threw me down to her and I hit her baby. I could mentally communicate with him and when I woke her up with my crying, he told her about what happened. The men, who were still on the dune watching the scene got eaten, both easily fitting in my mother’s round jaw. Then she destroyed half the beach with her tail and went back to sleep.

    Instead of leaving me to die, the baby, who I named Kyrogre, stood up and convinced her to let him keep me as a pet. The pet thing didn’t last long. I learned to talk and I was accepted in as a part of the family.

    For all of my life I stayed in the sea, swimming around with them and learning the ways of life as a dragon. Other than the occasional message or visit from Athrodox telling me I was cute, I never had anything to do with the gods. That was until the “cave incident”.

   

    When I was about a teenage age, me and my family swam to a few islands off of Louisiana, the state that looks like a hand in a map. Yes, even the states look different where I live, deal with it. Why we were there? The lobster season, my mom loves lobsters.

    Anyway, I was on one of the islands with my brother, just sitting on the beach and watching the waves and occasional seaweed roll in. The island wasn’t exciting, just sand and rocks, plus the occasional drifter dragons, small dragons with grey feathers that live off of coral and shrimp.

    “I am bored”, Kyrogre  yawned, huge maw opening and snapping shut. “You want to go walk around and kick around rocks till mom gets  back”? I said, scratching behind his jaw fluke where the titan’s round foot can’t reach. “But there isn’t anything exciting here”, the dragon groaned and rolled over on his back, black and white wings lying limp in the sand and his four feet wiggling in boredom.   

One of the drifters landed on a rock and wanted to chat with me. “Wow! The special human prince. I am lucky, I am a lucky dragon indeed”. It is not unusual, I get called “prince” all the time by dragons and fish, but humans don’t know of my abilities. “Hey do you know if there is anything interesting around here like a cool rock or a cave”?

The small drifter fluttered with excitement at the fact that I was asking him of something. That is also normal, but only a few small, insecure dragons freak out when I give them even a side glance. Some are so insecure they pass out or wet themselves when I say “Hi”.

“Not much, rocks, fish, crabs, rocks, fish crabs, and a cave”, the dragon said, waddling on its tiny feathered wings, tiny legs kicking to keep up with them. I raised an eyebrow, “What kind of cave”? “Oh a long cave, a human made cave. It goes for miles, but no dragon goes in there and comes out alive”.

Usually I wouldn’t give a second thought about a normal cave, but a man made one? On an island with nothing, but rocks and drifters? That was strange. “Hey Ky, do you want to go check it out. Sounds weird”. The black dragon rolled over and jumped up, slamming his white tipped tail slamming in the waves with a powerful thump. “Yeah, better than this dump”.

The cave was just like the dragon described, human made. The bricks were red and foreign, concrete kept them together in a well placed arch. It was slanting downwards into darkness, beyond the rock it was made into. I could smell death down there with my great senses. “This is creepy, let’s go back now. Come on Kyrogre”, I said trying to walk away. The huge dragon only nipped my bare back and shook his head. “Come on Perce, it’s not that bad. Mom won’t come back till a few weeks”. I wanted to argue, but the dragon pushed me down there with his round mouth and made me slide down the cool concrete tunnel to the bottom. Plunging into darkness was freaky especially since the wind was whispering for me to get out, to go back to the sea. I only stopped when I landed in a strait tunnel, thankfully not hurting my butt. Then my brother, landed behind me and sent me tumbling into a wall. I could see the white ovals on his face that looked like eyes through the darkness plus his white underbelly and wings. “Sorry”, he said, shaking off the cobwebs he had managed to pick up during his joy ride down. I just groaned and rolled over, trying to get up.

Somehow the human made tunnel turned to dirt with tons of weeds and rocks jabbing out. Green crystals illuminated the tunnel which was thankfully a size Kyrogre could fit through. I looked back up to see the entrance was gone and the slide had turned into a wall of dirt behind them.

“Well, I guess we keep going”, I said and motioned the dragon forward. Kyrogre didn’t argue and walked forward, shoulders swaying with his shifting weight. Land wasn’t very good for sea titan if they stayed on it too long, the same went for swamp titans.

The tunnel was strange, not just the glowing crystals, but the feeling and the quiet. Knowing from experience, there was always a dragon or other animal in places, but there wasn’t even a fly alive in the cave. In the dim light made the roots look like they were trying to grab us, making webs and loops for my legs and my brother’s hooked claws.

I felt like I was walking for only minutes before a light appeared around one of the corners. Kyrogre, impatient and hungry, jumped over me and ran into the sunlight, standing on his back legs and let his tail help keep him up. He let the sunlight flood his skin and the fresh air fill his lungs. “If you are that desperate then why did you go in the cave in the first place”, I said, rubbing my head where Kyrogre smashed me into the wall. My head tingled with slight pain, but not to much. At least the wall wasn’t rock. “Sorry. I didn’t know it would take that long and the entrance would disappear”, Kyrogre hissed standing on his four legs again.

I emerged into the sunlight seconds later, but not sea sunlight. There was no salty scent or cool air, no this place was like an African jungle, hot, green air, and full of flies. I growled at the sticks, rocks, acorns, pinecones, and needles stabbing my bear feet. Huge evergreen trees stood above me, huge branches colliding with each other and green needles poking out. Sunlight came rarely down from above, just enough to feed the grass and bushes down below. Birds and dragons chattered in the trees, mostly dragons who were now seeing a rare sight, the favored of Athrodox in a forest with a sea titan.

“Where are we”, Kyrogre asked, growling at some strange brown dragons with big, moose like horns. Apparently rumors spread fast for every dragon within a mile or so had flocked to that very spot to spot the only human who understood them. “Do you think I know? Hopefully it isn’t far from the sea. Hello there. Do you know where I can find the sea”, I asked.

Again, insecure dragons squeaked and fluttered with excitement at his voice while others looked for someone to answer. Finally a green and black colored dragon with round wings stepped forth, long, slim body snaking through the crowd. His head was arrow shaped, four sets of eyes coming down the side of his face to the front of his mouth. A set of nostrils flared between a mane of leaf shaped scales that ran down his back and to the end of his tail. “No, there isn’t any ocean for miles unfortunately. I am sorry we failed to help you”, the dragon said and bowed his head regretfully. “It’s ok. It isn’t your fault”, I said and patted his head, also being mindful of the two slits he breathed through. All of his eyes fell on me, filled with mercy and awe that an important creature had just patted him as if he had done something right instead of delivering bad news.

Suddenly shouting echoed through the woods, along with the rattle of heavy equipment and vehicles. The dragons screeched and ran off in terror yelling about the tree killing monsters. “Calm down ok. What is going on”, I yelled and everyone calmed down. Another dragon, a elk horned dragon climbed down a tree, “There has been humans coming here with scary monsters that eat trees. Now they are yelling at a young fiery haired human who tied herself to a tree. Most don’t understand why, but we do know to run from the machines”. All of the dragons were in a panic humans were known to hunt them once in awhile if they interfere with their work.

I gritted my teeth. Humans had no right to take this land or those trees. This was someone’s home, dragons’ home. Just because they couldn’t speak dragon doesn’t mean that they can just take their home and destroy nature. My mother never stood for this nonsense and she taught me to stand up to it too.

I balled my fists and walked towards the sound of the men and machinery. I could hear the thunderous footsteps of my brother behind me. Not far I could see the big, ugly, machines and burly men in ugly yellow uniforms. They were all facing one big tree with a red haired girl tied to it. She stood there, arms outward and legs apart to protect the tree, a stubborn look on her face as a man yelled at her.

“Rachel, get off of that tree right this instance. I can’t make my new building with you there and that means that I lose money. Money that I need to use to feed you and get you all the paints you like”, the man yelled. He wore a fancy suit and tie, hair red like the girl’s. “That is all you care about Dad. You don’t ever think about what is living here or the fact that these trees give you the air you breathe. I will not leave this tree”.

I raised an eyebrow, the bravest fishermen I have ever seen would never dare stand up to the whalers, and this girl was just a little canoe fisher against a fleet of whaling ships. Usually in this situation my mother would jump out of the ocean and together we would destroy the ships. Unfortunately mom wasn’t here. It was just me, my brother who was still pretty young, and hundreds of regular forest dragons. Then a realization hit me on what I should do. It was rather simple and humans did it all the time.

I could still see the dragons all over the forest, waiting on what I would do in this situation. They knew I was mad at these humans and I would destroy anything that disturbed the homes of dragons and other creatures. “Listen up everyone”, I yelled getting weird looks from the workers, “These men plan to take your homes, destroy your families, and make you suffer so they can sit under gold and silver and make these little pieces of killed trees called money. They do it so they can binge out on your children’s and neighbor’s meat and drink the water you desperately need. They don’t spare most of you and just throw out your bones like you are rocks. They turn you into fuel that they use to fill the air with toxic fumes that kill everyone loved one who survived this monstrosity”. Construction builders laughed at me preaching to the trees in just a swimsuit that I managed to get a hold of so humans quit flipping out at seeing me bare. Rachel’s father laughed at me while Rachel watched like it was a strange phenomenon. She could apparently see the dragons.

“How does it stop? It never does. These humans don’t wake up and think ‘hey, I am hurting nature’. No. The only way to fix this is to fight for your rights, your family, and your freedom. I will help all I can, but you need to save yourselves from your own doom. FOR THE FOREST”, I yelled. The construction workers were now on their backs before a mob of dragons flew up from the branches and roared a battle cry. The flightless ones stayed on the ground and roared, chirped, and whooped in unison. The men’s faces turned back to scared as a huge cloud  of flying reptiles swarmed them, tearing them apart and their machines apart too. The bigger dragons and Kyogre began tipping the machines and destroying what they could.

Men screamed and ran in terror from the monsters that dove down, caught them up and dropped them again. The dragons recognizing Rachel being on their side, let her off the tree and avoided attacking her like they were doing the workers. She stared in awe at me as I used one machine to destroy others with a bunch of dragons in the seat next to me enjoying all of the action. Each swing of the machine I used would knock down others or get tangled in the cranes and take out more. Dragons avoided the swinging arm and shrieked in victory as the machines blew up and fell apart. Little did I know someone had recorded the incident.


	2. Captured by dog guys

_ Thank you for all the wonderful comments and I hope you enjoy, but I warn you, some of the characters are a little different. _

That night all of the little dragons celebrated their victory over the humans with a collected fire in a clearing and lots of deer. Yes dragons celebrate and they love partying like humans do, but they just eat and chat since they don’t really make music. Really all of the delighted squawks and fluttering of wings is music to my ears anyway. Kyogre sat behind me and tore apart a wild pig while I cooked a leg over the fire.

While we were there I told stories of some funny adventures my family ran into to please the baby dragons and some of the insecure ones. All made funny gurgling noises and laughed when I told the story about the humans thinking that me and Kyrogre were seaweed monsters since we got a whole ton of kelp on us when we were little. Let’s just say it was funnier at the party than actually being there, there was a lot of shooting.

The night was surprisingly a peaceful one, and all of the dragons left thankfully. We had eventually found a stream that pooled into a nice spring where Kyrogre relaxed and let off all the weight he had been carrying around all day, like I said, they can’t last long without water. We slept there, hoping that we would get out and back to them ocean in the morning and hopefully our mother didn’t notice they were gone and was taking her sweet time hunting.

The next morning was a stormy one, a dark cloud hung over everything, rumbling and sending shivers up my spine. Then the rain came and it drenched me and Kyrogre from head to toe in seconds. The water thankfully didn’t harm me, but my poor brother couldn’t stand the weight and went inside another cave, not caring that the fact that we were closed in almost instantly.

The cave looked like a natural limestone cave with stalactites dripping from above. I thought it was just an ordinary cave, a safe cave, but no, it had to be part of that stupid sewer. “What does this stupid tunnel system want”, I groaned. Suddenly there was a whole mess of voices coming from the only entrance, they were not human. The room was round and there was nowhere to run if something came after us. I never carry around any belongings and I especially don’t have anything to defend myself with. The voices got closer and I could see the firelight of their torches. “Are you sure this is the way, I don’t want to be late to the fight”, a male voice said. “Play dead, I will hide”, I whispered and watched as Kyrogre silently lay on the floor, all of his muscle pooling on the floor to make it look like he entered and died of no water, even though his body was glistening with it. He still made a convincing scene, keeping his breathing at a minimum so it looked like he was truly dead. I found a big group of stalagmites to hide behind, they covered all places so no one could see me.

“Now look, a dead end. What is that”, the voice said, most likely motioning to my dragon brother. “Not to worry sir, the titan is most likely dead, their weight is too much to carry so their organs collapse after a long time without water”, a boy with a Swedish accent said. “But it’s wet”, a deep voice said, now that voice wasn’t human. “It is wet everywhere you stupid lumbering oaf. And slimey, ew. I hate dead things, let’s go”, a girl said. “No, I smell demigod”, the deep voice said again. I could hear a lot of sniffling sounds before a gigantic shape loomed over me. “Um hello, you are surrounded by demigods and we can’t eat any of them”, another voice just as deep said. “Aha”, the first voice said in delight and I could see a huge hand reach down for me. In a flash I jumped out of the way, ricocheted off the wall and kicked him in the head with my heel. I could feel his skull giving way to my foot and the giant fell to the ground, sand spilling from his skull. Sand? What?

“What the hell”, I heard a yell in front of me and I was face to face with an army of monsters. I mean I have never seen anything more screwed up, dog people, giants, and a mess of big ugly dogs. Not only that, but there was tons of teenagers standing around like they didn’t see anything. 

Without warning I attacked a dog 

thing that jumped at me though the crowd. We wrestled on the ground, I was choking the thing and it was trying to bite my arm off. With a final squeeze I killed it, the creature whined as it turned to dust. All the monsters came at me now plus a few of those people. Two giants brought me down, earning a few wounds in the process. I then hung by my legs, each one in each of the giant's hands. People and monsters ran at me, but was knocked away by Kyrogre's powerful tail. One of the Giants went down with the others, giving me enough movement to land a fatal blow on his head with a stalactite. The humans screamed and called for help and I could hear the clatter and footsteps of armored reinforcements. Before I knew it we were outnumbered twenty to one, some of the board trying to stop me and the other trying to stop my brother who roared and almost made the tunnel collapse. 

I was too busy fighting for my own life against twenty monsters I couldn't stop the others from taking down my brother. They had used golden ropes to tie his mouth shut and make it hard to move. He finally went down in a heap of rope and dragon, not even able to make a pitiful noise. 

"Give up little demigod. You have no chance of beating us", another one of those dog things said with a smile. Based on all his fancy gear and metals, he was a higher ranking than all that were there. "And if I don't"? I asked, dropping the body of one of the teenagers that came at me. The army stayed in place, but armed in case I attacked. The thing smiled, long snout curling into a sharp toothed grin. "We slay your dragon where he lay", it said.

I now saw a snake woman, one of her snake trunk legs on my brother's shoulder and a big harpoon ready to strike. I hated seeing my brother so helpless and in danger, I wanted to stop it, but if I tried the monsters would stop me and the snake lady would kill my dear brother. There was only one option left. Surrender. The monsters didn't attack and let me put my hands in the air and drop down to my knees. 

Mother said there was nothing wrong with a surrender if it is for a good cause. If that was it then I wouldn't feel so horrible about doing so.

The dog thing snapped his fingers and a group of giants put me in chains, one of my least favorite things. Each cuff that was put on my wrist had a huge boulder tied to it so even if I did get out of their grasp I couldn't run. "What should we do with him"? One of those "demigods" asked. The dog's grin widened. "The boy's tough and by the power of him, probably a Big Three child. We will hand him over to Kronos to either fight in the arena or fight with us in battle". "And the Titan"? "Use him as leverage for this demigod. With the power he has we will need something to blackmail him with to keep him under control". All of the army agreed and began taking me and my brother down a tunnel.

I had no idea where we were going because I couldn't see first off. I was sandwiched between ten monsters and five behind me. My injuries hurt and some lay under my cuffs, making it uncomfortable and even painful. 

I somewhat saw my brother’s tail in a desperate struggle to get free, but the bonds kept him from rioting. I felt useless, like a person watching a movie. You know that your favorite character is in danger, but you can’t jump into the screen to save them even though it would be so easy to help if you could. I once went through that watching a movie on the beach when I was little and Kyrogre got his first teeth.

Before we knew it we were lead into a round room. It looked like an arena except this place was more like the catacombs made of bones. It was round with stands filled with monsters and demigods all cheering for two armour clad things fighting below. The place was made out of human skulls all aligned on the walls, some white as beluga whales to some that were almost black, to some that still had bits of gore and flesh remaining on the surface. The walls were etched with waves and banners made of brown, black and red death titan skin in strips. The biggest skull in the room was a death titan skull that hung over the place from chains strung with more skulls, even a few dragon skulls.

Kyrogre was dragged off in another direction to a pool of water nearby the stands. The dragons lashed and struggled to get away from the filthy water the warriors cleaned their wounds with after a battle. The monsters dragged him into the filthy water where he thrashed and struggled to escape. They submerged his head at the other side and tied him to two metal poles that were stationed there for holding onto while cleaning off the blood and grime. I knew he hated dirty water and being dirty in general, he complained it would ruin his handsomeness someday and he would look like his father. I met dad once, he was nice, but covered in battle scars from battling other males and his underbelly was yellow from how he ate his food, messy and bloody.

The memories comforted me, but I had no idea if we would get out of this alive.

I had to stand around for a few minutes before the dog thing came back and motioned up the stairs to the best seat in the house surrounded by tridents painted on the brown marble underbelly skin of a death titan. Little guards assisted leading me up there until only two giants remained. They brought me before two thrones and forced me to my knees, grabbing my hair so I would be clear to see. In the first seat sat a big guy who looked like he had one too many doughnuts. He wore a cape for some reason, but had nothing on but a loin cloth. He was watching the battle with an evil grin, teeth etched with waves. He looked like a full grown kid watching his favorite T.V show. The other person next to him looked like an ordinary person dressed in all white. His hair was the color of sand and was cut very short with the hair at the top of his head directing forward. His eyes were a calm shade of blue and they watched the fight with distaste. 

“Um, my lord”, the dog general said and that snapped him out of his focus. The look of distaste vanished and was more curious to what the general was asking. “Oh yeah the new demigod. Is that him”, the guy asked, a British accent on his tongue. “Yes sir, this demigod was found hiding in a dead end in the Labyrinth. He fought side by side with a sea titan that is now tied up over in the cleansing pool. They took down most of the squad that was down there with his hands and a few stalagmites”. The blonde raised an eyebrow and got up to take a better look at Percy. “This one is a beauty, but I have never seen him before”. “Who cares just throw him in the arena”, the giant said as he watched a demigod slaughter another.


	3. I hate Stygian iron

_Hey, thanks again for the comments. I am sorry if the story doesn't have indents, I am doing this on my I pod because my sister is hogging the computer. Love you all._

_-KariahDreams_

I was thrown into battle almost immediately, but first the monsters had kindly given me some armour and a helmet off of a dead demigod slain by a hellhound. Wonderful. I also got a celestial bronze sword from another demigod that died in battle. It was of course unbalanced, but they didn’t care. No they just threw me into the arena with pierced armor stained in blood and a sword that was way too heavy for me. I felt like a trapped animal down in a hole with a bear. The demigod I was forced to face was drenched in blood from his last victory. He kept flinging it everywhere to make the floor remember his victory forever, yelling and lifting the head of his opponent for everyone to witness, then he took a bite of the ear of the head. The giant in the stands clapped his hands and bounced up and down like a baby enjoying his parent’s antics. The dude spotted me, his eyes different colors, one blue and one grey, full of insanity. His pupils were dilated as if he had been taking too many “happy pills”, as most ships called them. Without warning he came at me, stride wobbly and mouth foaming like he had rabies. I could hear him huffing as he ran. I showed no expression as he lept in the air and tried to stab a bent dagger in my skull. Instead I slashed an arch and my sword slashed right under his ribs. He let out a blood curtling scream and was thrown to the ground by the blade. Holy gods of creation this kid was a zombie. He coughed up blood, but still got up and tried to eat my leg. One final swing beheaded him before his jaws could come down on my right shin, but the burning hatred in his eyes scared the heck out of me. “Boo, you are only supposed to kill when I tell you”, the giant above said to me. I almost threw up at the sight I was seeing by my leg, “Sir, the guy isn’t dead”. I shook my leg at the head which was bouncing up and down like a fish, mouth trying to grab hold of something, but most likely my leg. Blood poured from its neck and something flopped behind it, its vertebrae. Some demigods from the stand actually puked and the girls screamed and hid their eyes. “Oh fine, since the audience is being wimps about it”, the big guy said and put his thumb down. Without hesitation I stabbed the head and walked away from the remains. I didn’t watch as servants cleaned up the mess, and I just stared at the giant grumping about his little champion being slaughtered. In the side of the arena a tunnel opened and two snake women came out, their two trunks working as very floppy legs. Behind them was a kid with an orange T-shirt, dark skin, and black hair, cut short and standing up like a silky, ruffled mess. He looked about my age except shorter and thinner, but his face was cute. Yes I am calling him cute.He really is, I bet people look at him and go “awww”, pinching his cheeks. He looked around at everything until he stopped on the blonde guy. “Luke”, he yelled in distaste trying to get out of a giant’s grip. The blonde smiled, “Good day Nico. How have you been? Anything new with the Hermes cabin”? Nico snarled before answering, “Oh yeah we repainted it pink and now it is for the daughters of Aphrodite to put on their make up. We all live in a castle now and get messages every day”. I knew he was being sarcastic because I heard that tone with sailors before and sometimes New Yorkers when I visited their harbor. “Oh? Is it? Well that is wonderful to hear, I will ask your sister about it since she is right here”, Luke said pleasantly as a dark haired girl in a silver uniform was pushed into view. I saw Nico gasp as he watched his sister being put in chains and tied next to my brother. “You can get her back after you amuse my associate next to me, Antaeus. You fight this person well and he likes you, you can leave, but if you lose I will kill your sister and feed her to the sea titan she is next to. Oh it won’t just be her, your little mortal friend will also be fed to our death titan”. I wanted to tear this pleasant stupid, gay, stupid, any other insult, freak into chum. The water was already filthy enough and they were going to dump a dead body in with my poor brother that was supposed to eat it. He never ate human, it gave him stomach aches. Yes he ate one who lead a whaling fleet before and he hated it, he’d rather bite and spit out, but when a sea titan is hungry enough they would eat anything. On top of that he was threatening the poor kid next to me to kill me or they would kill his sister. I have been in the same position just a while ago and just thinking of my brother dying would be horrible and I wouldn’t stand for it. “Well, what are you waiting for? Begin”, Antaeus boomed and Nico unsheathed a stygian iron sword. I haven’t seen it before, but a dragon told me about it once, saying a kid was traveling around with one in the sea of monsters. The stuff is all black and brings a deathly feel over everything, also it reaped souls and gave the wielder energy. Nico looked at me with a new mission, kill me in the most extraordinary way possible, get his sister, get his mortal friend, and do something else. Before I knew it a couple of skeletons came out of the ground and the bones in the place rattled like they were trying to reform and help out. They all came at me with broken weapons and I swatted them away with the sword I was given and sent their remains back to the floor, but I could see the kid’s plan. He had tried to distract me with the skeletons to give him enough time to make an attack. I moved my blade up right in time to deflect it and send him backwards. He came at me again, but I moved out of the way and he stumbled forward. Nico turned around to face me eyes burning with determination, “Quit being a wimp and fight”. The next time he came at me, I swung my blade to meet his hilt and twisted his sword out of his hand. It clattered over to the other end. He didn’t move, fear now replaced in his eyes at my sword skills that I earned while beating up whaling people who used knives and spears as weapons. “Relax, I am not going to hurt you. I know how you feel, they are threatening my sibling also”. Nico raised an eyebrow. Aww. “They are threatening to feed your brother or sister to a titan”? I chuckled, “No, my brother is the sea titan. He hates eating human”. Nico just stared at me like I was crazy, well, to him I guess I am. “Your brother is a dragon”. “Yup”. “And you are human”. “Sure, I guess you can say that”. Nico raised an eyebrow, looking concerned for my mental health. “You don’t believe me? KYROGRE. SAY HI TO NICO”. In the pool I saw Kyrogre’s tail come out of the filthy water. He moved his hips back and forth, making his white and black tail wave back in forth like a greeting. “See, he says hi”. Nico’s face only became more confused and he began rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “Oh gods of Olympus you are weird, let's straighten this out. Your brother, a dragon, is being threatened by Luke to make you fight. This would be much easier to understand if you would subtract the dragon being your brother part”. “Stop talking and kill each other already. I am bored”, Antaeus whined. A look of fear flashed on Luke’s face, then he put on an evil smirk. “Sir Antaeus, how about we throw in a dragon”. “What dragon”? “A death titan”.


	4. hundred monster run

     _Hello there and thank you for the wonderful comments. Also I wish to warn you some of the characters will be different like the fact that Louisiana is in the shape of a hand. I didn't mention any names of the monsters so some of you might recognize the Lystragonians and some telkhines (the general 'dog thing') . Thank you for reading._

     That night all of the little dragons celebrated their victory over the humans with a collected fire in a clearing and lots of deer. Yes dragons celebrate and they love partying like humans do, but they just eat and chat since they don’t really make music. Really all of the delighted squawks and fluttering of wings is music to my ears anyway. Kyogre sat behind me and tore apart a wild pig while I cooked a leg over the fire.

While we were there I told stories of some funny adventures my family ran into to please the baby dragons and some of the insecure ones. All made funny gurgling noises and laughed when I told the story about the humans thinking that me and Kyrogre were seaweed monsters since we got a whole ton of kelp on us when we were little. Let’s just say it was funnier at the party than actually being there, there was a lot of shooting.

The night was surprisingly a peaceful one, and all of the dragons left thankfully. We had eventually found a stream that pooled into a nice spring where Kyrogre relaxed and let off all the weight he had been carrying around all day, like I said, they can’t last long without water. We slept there, hoping that we would get out and back to them ocean in the morning and hopefully our mother didn’t notice they were gone and was taking her sweet time hunting.

The next morning was a stormy one, a dark cloud hung over everything, rumbling and sending shivers up my spine. Then the rain came and it drenched me and Kyrogre from head to toe in seconds. The water thankfully didn’t harm me, but my poor brother couldn’t stand the weight and went inside another cave, not caring that the fact that we were closed in almost instantly.

The cave looked like a natural limestone cave with stalactites dripping from above. I thought it was just an ordinary cave, a safe cave, but no, it had to be part of that stupid sewer. “What does this stupid tunnel system want”, I groaned. Suddenly there was a whole mess of voices coming from the only entrance, they were not human. The room was round and there was nowhere to run if something came after us. I never carry around any belongings and I especially don’t have anything to defend myself with. The voices got closer and I could see the firelight of their torches. “Are you sure this is the way, I don’t want to be late to the fight”, a male voice said. “Play dead, I will hide”, I whispered and watched as Kyrogre silently lay on the floor, all of his muscle pooling on the floor to make it look like he entered and died of no water, even though his body was glistening with it. He still made a convincing scene, keeping his breathing at a minimum so it looked like he was truly dead. I found a big group of stalagmites to hide behind, they covered all places so no one could see me.

“Now look, a dead end. What is that”, the voice said, most likely motioning to my dragon brother. “Not to worry sir, the titan is most likely dead, their weight is too much to carry so their organs collapse after a long time without water”, a boy with a Swedish accent said. “But it’s wet”, a deep voice said, now that voice wasn’t human. “It is wet everywhere you stupid lumbering oaf. And slimey, ew. I hate dead things, let’s go”, a girl said. “No, I smell demigod”, the deep voice said again. I could hear a lot of sniffling sounds before a gigantic shape loomed over me. “Um hello, you are surrounded by demigods and we can’t eat any of them”, another voice just as deep said. “Aha”, the first voice said in delight and I could see a huge hand reach down for me. In a flash I jumped out of the way, ricocheted off the wall and kicked him in the head with my heel. I could feel his skull giving way to my foot and the giant fell to the ground, sand spilling from his skull. Sand? What?

“What the hell”, I heard a yell in front of me and I was face to face with an army of monsters. I mean I have never seen anything more screwed up, dog people, giants, and a mess of big ugly dogs. Not only that, but there was tons of teenagers standing around like they didn’t see anything. 

Without warning I attacked a dog 

thing that jumped at me though the crowd. We wrestled on the ground, I was choking the thing and it was trying to bite my arm off. With a final squeeze I killed it, the creature whined as it turned to dust. All the monsters came at me now plus a few of those people. Two giants brought me down, earning a few wounds in the process. I then hung by my legs, each one in each of the giant's hands. People and monsters ran at me, but was knocked away by Kyrogre's powerful tail. One of the Giants went down with the others, giving me enough movement to land a fatal blow on his head with a stalactite. The humans screamed and called for help and I could hear the clatter and footsteps of armored reinforcements. Before I knew it we were outnumbered twenty to one, some of the board trying to stop me and the other trying to stop my brother who roared and almost made the tunnel collapse. 

I was too busy fighting for my own life against twenty monsters I couldn't stop the others from taking down my brother. They had used golden ropes to tie his mouth shut and make it hard to move. He finally went down in a heap of rope and dragon, not even able to make a pitiful noise. 

"Give up little demigod. You have no chance of beating us", another one of those dog things said with a smile. Based on all his fancy gear and metals, he was a higher ranking than all that were there. "And if I don't"? I asked, dropping the body of one of the teenagers that came at me. The army stayed in place, but armed in case I attacked. The thing smiled, long snout curling into a sharp toothed grin. "We slay your dragon where he lay", it said.

I now saw a snake woman, one of her snake trunk legs on my brother's shoulder and a big harpoon ready to strike. I hated seeing my brother so helpless and in danger, I wanted to stop it, but if I tried the monsters would stop me and the snake lady would kill my dear brother. There was only one option left. Surrender. The monsters didn't attack and let me put my hands in the air and drop down to my knees. 

Mother said there was nothing wrong with a surrender if it is for a good cause. If that was it then I wouldn't feel so horrible about doing so.

The dog thing snapped his fingers and a group of giants put me in chains, one of my least favorite things. Each cuff that was put on my wrist had a huge boulder tied to it so even if I did get out of their grasp I couldn't run. "What should we do with him"? One of those "demigods" asked. The dog's grin widened. "The boy's tough and by the power of him, probably a Big Three child. We will hand him over to Kronos to either fight in the arena or fight with us in battle". "And the Titan"? "Use him as leverage for this demigod. With the power he has we will need something to blackmail him with to keep him under control". All of the army agreed and began taking me and my brother down a tunnel.

I had no idea where we were going because I couldn't see first off. I was sandwiched between ten monsters and five behind me. My injuries hurt and some lay under my cuffs, making it uncomfortable and even painful. 

I somewhat saw my brother’s tail in a desperate struggle to get free, but the bonds kept him from rioting. I felt useless, like a person watching a movie. You know that your favorite character is in danger, but you can’t jump into the screen to save them even though it would be so easy to help if you could. I once went through that watching a movie on the beach when I was little and Kyrogre got his first teeth.

Before we knew it we were lead into a round room. It looked like an arena except this place was more like the catacombs made of bones. It was round with stands filled with monsters and demigods all cheering for two armour clad things fighting below. The place was made out of human skulls all aligned on the walls, some white as beluga whales to some that were almost black, to some that still had bits of gore and flesh remaining on the surface. The walls were etched with waves and banners made of brown, black and red death titan skin in strips. The biggest skull in the room was a death titan skull that hung over the place from chains strung with more skulls, even a few dragon skulls.

Kyrogre was dragged off in another direction to a pool of water nearby the stands. The dragons lashed and struggled to get away from the filthy water the warriors cleaned their wounds with after a battle. The monsters dragged him into the filthy water where he thrashed and struggled to escape. They submerged his head at the other side and tied him to two metal poles that were stationed there for holding onto while cleaning off the blood and grime. I knew he hated dirty water and being dirty in general, he complained it would ruin his handsomeness someday and he would look like his father. I met dad once, he was nice, but covered in battle scars from battling other males and his underbelly was yellow from how he ate his food, messy and bloody.

The memories comforted me, but I had no idea if we would get out of this alive.

I had to stand around for a few minutes before the dog thing came back and motioned up the stairs to the best seat in the house surrounded by tridents painted on the brown marble underbelly skin of a death titan. Little guards assisted leading me up there until only two giants remained. They brought me before two thrones and forced me to my knees, grabbing my hair so I would be clear to see. In the first seat sat a big guy who looked like he had one too many doughnuts. He wore a cape for some reason, but had nothing on but a loin cloth. He was watching the battle with an evil grin, teeth etched with waves. He looked like a full grown kid watching his favorite T.V show. The other person next to him looked like an ordinary person dressed in all white. His hair was the color of sand and was cut very short with the hair at the top of his head directing forward. His eyes were a calm shade of blue and they watched the fight with distaste. 

“Um, my lord”, the dog general said and that snapped him out of his focus. The look of distaste vanished and was more curious to what the general was asking. “Oh yeah the new demigod. Is that him”, the guy asked, a British accent on his tongue. “Yes sir, this demigod was found hiding in a dead end in the Labyrinth. He fought side by side with a sea titan that is now tied up over in the cleansing pool. They took down most of the squad that was down there with his hands and a few stalagmites”. The blonde raised an eyebrow and got up to take a better look at Percy. “This one is a beauty, but I have never seen him before”. “Who cares just throw him in the arena”, the giant said as he watched a demigod slaughter another.


	5. The all dangerous Beeping

    _Hello all of my wonderful readers. Tomorrow is my Birthday so 'happy birthday to me, Luke is a freak. Percy hangs out with dragons. And now Nico is cute'._

A secret entrance in the Labyrinth opened up to a dark cave tall enough for a giraffe to walk though. Nico was now close to me in fear, knowing how deadly and smart death titans are. In the dark corridor a pair of blood red eyes opened, scraping sounds echoing up the walls as the beast walked forward. The eyes closed and fast as a python, the creature’s neck lashed forward at the dog creatures that opened the door. It’s head was narrow and curved with a pointed snout. The monster had two scaled flaps that worked as ears, looking like rabbit ears with gills inside them. The teeth of the creature, curved inward except for two huge fangs that dripped with poison. The dog things yelped as the black head twisted and snapped at them, killing them instantly with the smallest scratch.

    It was rare people got to see the beasts up close since the death titan is the deadliest dragon in the world, enough poison to kill another one of their own species. Smaller creatures die instantly of the poison while bigger animals like most dragons or the titans would last longer than humans or small dragons. They could be spotted flying around at times, but never in populated areas.

    By the looks of the death titan we were facing, it was about my brother’s age not yet full grown, but mature enough to produce venom. The rest of the thing came out, a huge barrel like chest and huge wings with claws at the top so it could walk. It’s back sloped down to shorter skinny back legs. A long tail ended at the back, whip thin, but still deadly to those who were struck by it. The dragon’s top scales were black, but patterned like a clouded leopard, but the spots were red. It’s underbelly was a swirl of fiery colors mixing in like lava. Her wings were held down by chains and the creature’s back legs also had chains attached to them.

    Nico yelped in terror as the dragon’s eyes landed on the two. “Now let’s get a deal down, if the death titan kills these guys then my army will be able to pass. If it dies then I will trade you the pelt for  the passing of my army? Deal”, Luke said out loud. The giant’s eyes were wide and he was bouncing in his chair. “Whatever. Let the fighting begin”, the giant yelled, in excitement.

    The crowd roared in approval, hissing and yelling, “Semus, Semus, Semus”. I had no idea who they were yelling to, there was no other males in the ring except us.

    With all the noise, hurting here ears and giving her a headache, the dragon roared and thundered around for silence. Her tail whipped around and ripped skulls off the wall and flinging bloody sand everywhere. The cheering died down and she got her focus back again. The dragon’s eyes opened up to me and at first she cocked her head to the side. “You are a strange human”, she said, her voice high like a little girl’s. She suddenly stepped back in fear at sensing my power, maybe she was thinking I was one of Luke’s minions. What did they do to this poor dragon to make her fear me. “It’s ok, I won’t hurt you. My name is Percy”. The dragon cocked her head again and chattered in curiosity. “Dude, um, Percy did you say? Yeah, there is a huge death titan that is about to kill us, I don’t think talking to it will work”, Nico said behind me, also not knowing who I am or my abilities. “Relax Nico, I know what I am doing”, I said. He rolled his eyes and sighed, mumbling “My life is in the hands of a crazy guy who thinks he can talk to dragons. Wonderful”. I smiled at him, but he couldn’t see it through my helmet.

    The dragon now took a cautious step towards me, ears fattened and neck low. Nico squeaked as the dragon’s head was inches away from my chest plate. Gently I reached out and let her smell my hand. As if a cat with catnip her eyes widened and she rubbed her head all over my hand. Nico watched as she did this with amazement and she looked like she couldn’t get enough of it.

    “Easy, girl. I am not going anywhere”, I said. “Your hand is nice, it smells like the ocean. I have never been touched by nice hands in a while. Ever since Nina”. “Who is Nina”? The dragon’s eyes sparkled like a little kid talking about its discoveries. “Oh Nina rescued me as an egg and raised me. I would help her with monsters because she didn’t like her home where she would sleep on a floor with a lot of other kids. Then she took me to evil blonde boy that likes other boys. They locked me up in these cold, heavy things and I never saw her again”. The dragon lowered her head and nudged my chest. I wrapped my arms around her head for comfort, feeling her sadness and her betrayal.

    “What is going on, Semus kill them. DO IT NOW”! Luke screamed, scaring the poor dragon. “Are you the one he calls Semus”. The dragon moaned sadly, “he calls me Semus, but Nina called me Beeping”. Then a sad sound rumbled in her throat and her body moved closer to me. “Get going you worthless dragon”, Luke yelled. “LUKE! That is no way to treat a lady”. The look on Luke’s face when I said that was priceless, along with the one on Nico’s face. “Uh...What”? “Yes, Beeping, is in fact female and I would appreciate if you would speak to her in a more respectful way”, I said angrily. Beeping’s eyes sparkled when I said her old name.

    Luke just looked at me like I was insane, “Who in the name of Kronos are you. What are you”? I heard his voice break in outrage. “Don’t recognize me, I am pretty famous in the dragon world”.

    A person in the crowd jumped up on his seat. “I knew I have seen this guy, he is the dragon dude from the news. The one who sent an entire forest of dragons on a bunch of construction workers”. The crowd gasped and looked at me with newfound respect.

    Kyrogre finally wrenched his head out of his bonds and let out a roar that shook the entire place. With his mouth free he called upon a sea titan’s emergency weapon, puking water. A blast of boiling hot liquid shot out of his mouth and at the creatures in the stands, causing mass panic and chaos. Luke yelled to get them in order, but both Kyrorge and Beeping roared, my brother’s deep and her’s high pitched like a pterodactyl rising screech. Everyone’s ears were bleeding, Luke and Antaeus on the ground, screams of pain drowned out by the noise. “KYROGRE, GET THE TWO PEOPLE NEXT TO YOU AND RUN. I WILL TAKE CARE OF THE REST”, I yelled and the dragon heard me, wrenching his chains off and picking up Rachel and Nico’s sister by their shirts with his mouth. Cupping their ears they didn’t notice being lifted up and being carried off into a cave. I grabbed Nico by the waist and climbed onto Beeping’s neck. The dragon easily lifted her head and roared one last time before following Kyrogre into the darkness once again.


	6. into the tunnels

Hello everyone reading, I enjoyed the comments and I still read them over and over again to remind myself that there are people out there who like what I write and may read books I plan to publish in my future. I thank you all and warn you, I never liked Bianca. I always saw her as a greedy little brat who didn’t even care for her brother. I made this one no different in my mind, minus the fact that this Bianca has no regrets for that and the real one does. I hope you dislike this version. 

“Put me down”, the girl in silver said, kicking and pummeling the air and Rachel who was unfortunately right behind her. Kyrogre finally stopped and dropped them on the floor without any care. I laughed as I saw the two struggle to untangle themselves. Nico still hung in my arms, not making a peep and trying to make himself as limp and unnoticeable as possible. For the longest time I forgot he was there, or was that his plan. I don’t know I can’t read people’s minds. 

“Sorry little dude”, I said and set him down on the floor. He didn’t seem to want to be put down, but he soon stood on the stone floor staring at his sister and friend wrestle each other in anger. “Nico, what is the meaning of this? I told you not to bother me again, now look where I am, tangled up in this mortal brat. Now come here and help me out of this”, the girl in silver yelled. Nico’s eyes turned sad and he helped them both get untangled. “Now who are you”, the girl said in a snotty attitude after wiping off her silver uniform. I really was not liking Nico’s sister and the way she looked at my brother and Beeping. The dragon’s stared at her as if wanting to tear her apart limb by limb, but I didn’t let them, giving them the “no, leave it please” look when they inched closer. “Do you think I know, he is just a gladiator I fought, but I feel he is important and powerful. He can also communicate with the dragons”, Nico said like an excited child. His sister looked over her brother in distaste, “I swear to Zeus you are the most stupid and ignorant boy I have never met in my life. No one can talk to dragons, they are just stupid creatures that kill everything”. Nico looked down sadly at her words. 

This was his sister? I would expect this out of cruel masters to slaves, but never in my life would I expect this out of brother and sister. Siblings were supposed to be there for each other, have a bond stronger and more amazing than a lover or a friend, even if they are adopted. I have that bond with Kyrogre and we embrace it and it becomes stronger every day. This, this was mutiny, this was an insult to sibling hood, this bond is dead. I could feel it, Nico is trying to connect, but this… This… Human is blocking it out.

“Want me to kill her, I will do it gladly”, Kyrogre growled and slammed his weight down as he took a step toward her. “I could give her a little dose of venom, just enough to make her suffer for the rest of her life. It won’t be like the humans can cure it, they instantly die of our poison and it cannot be detected by their machines”, Beeping growled. Both of them were agitated by the girl, just like me, dragons are not stupid beasts, some are even wiser than the oldest and smartest human. “Nico, this is your sister? I would expect something...more out of risking you life for her. If I would have had to deal with something like this I would have just left it behind. It doesn’t deserve a wonderful person like you”, I said. He blushed a little and looked away, “Bianca is my sister...I...I can’t. She is the only family I have left”, he said softly. 

I watched him as he stood there, silently staring at the floor, Bianca grumbling and kicking the wall for an entrance, and Rachel looking at Nico with curiosity. I wondered what it was like, being glued to the people you hate just because they had your blood. I have always had a choice and each choice were great choices, Nico had none. He was stuck with this brat, but he tried to make the best of it, tried to save a dead bird.

Beeping leaned down and nuzzled Nico’s arm, fitting her slim head under it. Then she started to make small beeping sounds in her throat, kind of like purring. Nico smiled and petted the creature’s black scales and red spotting. “I wonder what happened to her and how she ended up with Kronos, she is so sweet”. Nico looked at Percy for answers. “She says a girl named Nina saved her as an egg and raised her, then abandon her to Kronos”, I said. Nico eye’s sparkled, “Nina, she died a long time ago, she was part of Kronos's army and she attacked us. I remember she used to be a camper in the Hermes cabin, where we keep all of the unclaimed campers. She was one. I wonder what happened to her”. 

      “So will someone explain what this mortal and this beast are doing down here”, Bianca said angrily, beast meaning my brother. Anger finally breaking loose, Kyrogre whipped around and smacked her into the walls with his tail. “Ow, what was that for”? She screamed, glaring at me. “I didn’t do anything, you pissed off my brother and he smacked you, personally I don't blame him. Nice hit Ky”. The black dragon did that laughing thing and banged his tail on the floor in glee. She kept glaring at me and I glared back.

     “How I ended up here, that's a good question”, Rachel said, raising her voice to break the huge tension storm, “Well my lovely friend Nico invited me down here to find the way to Daedalus's workshop. With my abilities to see through the mist, I am able to find the path, but his friend Annabeth thought she knew the right way so she went off by herself. New guy, I don't know your name, but I remember you at the forest, rallying the dragons to attack the construction workers. I am guessing that is so because you can talk to dragons. How did a sea Titan and a dude in a bathing suit end up in the Labarinth”?

     “Well my mom is out lobster fishing for a week, sometimes a month and we were bored so me and my brother went to explore this cave, ended up in that forest, then got stuck in this cave again. That dude captured us and forced us to fight with Nico. Does that answer you question”? Bianca snorted, “well now you are free now take your dragons and shoo”.”good idea Bianca, how about you take off your helmet, your fight is over and that punctured armor isn’t going to do anything for you”, Rachel said, getting a mean glare from Bianca. “Alright, if you insist”, and I just simply, took off my helmet. When it was off I shook it out so it didn’t stick to my head with sweat. Droplets flew from my hair from being under the helmet for that long and I was thankful that the annoying wetness had finally been banished from my head, it was starting to itch.

The next thing I saw were three faces gaping at me, even Bianca. Their eyes were wide and they just stared at me. At first I thought some monster was behind me or something so I looked around for anything. Of course there was nothing so I wondered what they were looking at. “Um, hello. You guys still there”. 

To my relief Nico’s mouth began to move, good he isn’t dead. He did not speak which surprised me, but that face, so cute. “C-can I put you on instagram”, Rachel said. “What”? “I am going to go now. The hunters must be worried so bye”, Bianca said, coming out of her trance and exiting the hall at a run. What the heck was going on. “Ky, do you know what these people are talking about”? The dragon pushed his shoulders up in a shrug, “I don’t know, maybe it is because you aren’t ugly. I know, you are better looking than the humans around here”. “Hm, maybe Ky”. 

I looked at the two one last time and smiled, “I am going to go head off now, you two stay safe and make sure to not die in here”. Finally Nico blinked, waking up to reality. “No wait don’t go. We can lead you out. W-we can find you a way home. Please just stay a little longer, you can help us”. I gave him a sad look, “I like you Nico, you are the best human I have ever met, but it is not entirely my place to choose, my brother wants to go to the surface and get in the ocean. Also we need to get back before mother, I remember the last time we disappeared and let’s just say it was not fun”. Kyrogre nodded and gently grabbed my arm with his mouth, pulling me down the tunnel to where he wanted to go. “Bye Nico, maybe I can see you some time soon”, I yelled back at him.

I wasn’t surprised Beeping didn’t follow, I knew she liked Nico. She wanted to be at his side and be with him like a friend, not a pet like she was last time. I knew Nico knew she was more than a pet, she had a mind of her own and she could take care of herself, she just wanted a friend. “Take care of Beeping”, I yelled, watching them fade into the distance and a wall closed behind us. Alone in the maze again, fantastic.


	7. Tyson and the god of goat boys

The tunnel got darker until there was absolutely no light and we were just walking through darkness hoping not to bump into walls. Even my brother Kyrogre couldn’t see anything and he had eyes for seeing in the dark waters of the ocean. Suddenly he stumbled, a short rising yelp as a root wound around his foot. The dragon growled at it and tried to fit his big mouth in there and bite it off. With the size of the tunnel, he had to crawl low and keep his wings folded against his body tightly. I turned around and fumbled with the root, finally getting his foot free. 

“I hate this stupid maze”, the dragon said and slammed his tail on the dirt ground. “Careful Ky, remember we are back in the tunnel full of roots and you don’t want your fluke to get cut and infected like the tail of that one sea titan that had to get a new one by being stuck with the humans. You don’t want to end up like her”. The dragon snorted in the darkness and nudged me forward. A monster could have attacked my brother, but none came at us, we were alone in the dark with roots all around us. 

The glowing crystals began to show up again, but there was more colors glowing on the ceiling then there was in the last cave. They all illuminated my face and my brother’s smooth back, still wet from that filthy tub. Suddenly it got brighter and we could avoid all of the annoying roots that poked out from the wall. The tunnel got wider and bigger and mud squelched between my bare toes, cleaning my feet from the bloody field. 

Suddenly the cave opened up to a huge room full of monsters fighting a little cyclopes who stood over a little satyr who was sleeping, goat legs submerged in the river. I remember one of the demigods from the stands, a kid with an eyepatch and odd accent. “Why don’t we just ignore him”, he yelled to the dog man, a telkine I guess, weird animals they are. It was that general one, the one from last time. 

I growled at seeing him again, he really pissed me off this dog thing. “No, he works with Di Angelo and the other demigods on the god’s side. This is the cyclopes claimed openly by Poseidon. He is our enemy and he must die”, the dog thing said with a smile. I narrowed my eyes at him, even though they didn’t see me. “Must...Protect...goatboy”, the little cyclopes said and pushed a hellhound off his chest. Internal anger boiled inside me, he was only protecting his friend, like I try and protect my friends, or my brother. 

I nudged Kyrogre with my elbow and whispered to him, “Want to help out, maybe get some revenge. I still have that sword from the arena”. The dragon growled deeply and I climbed on his shoulders. I could feel his muscles tense as he got ready to bolt. He sprang into action, the jump maximized by his tail and wings for more lift. He basically flew up and flattened a bunch of monsters with a rising roar. The little cyclopes looked at me, big calf brown eye glimmering with awe through his messy hair. 

Kyrogre smacked a bunch of monsters in the icy river. They tried to get out, but using that strange ability I always had with water, a wave hit them and sent them tumbling deeper underground. How I had it, I don’t know, it is why I survived this long with living under the water with a pod of sea titans. This is why they don’t keep humans as pets like my brother once decided me. Lucky me huh?

The telkine’s eyes widened and I threw my sword at the thing, catching it in the chest and turning him into dust before he said a word. The little cyclopes just stared at us as we fought all the monsters around us, killing everyone there was. The eye patched kid ran as fast as he could away from us, escaping through an open passage that closed off almost instantly after he went though. Kyrogre ran at the wall and slammed his body into it in anger, me still on him. “Easy Ky, he is gone and there is nothing that we can do alright”, I said, before I could fall off his shoulders while he tried to tear the wall apart. Reluctantly he stopped before my leg got trapped in the action and broke, that would not be fun for me or for him. The sea titan walked back to the cyclopes who starred at us with complete awe. He looked so cute like a little boy staring into the eyes of his hero. I smiled at him and got off Kyrogre to try and help the satyr. I knelt down and looked at the unconscious kid and opened an eyelid. I could see the whites of his eyes, that was good? bad? How do I know, I know he isn’t dead. “What happened to him”, I asked the cyclopes. He snapped out of his daydream and told them about Nico’s quest and the sudden tunnel leading into the room and Grover, the satyr, passing out suddenly. I shook my head confused on what was with this group of tunnels. “I think just a bit of water would do”, I said and let a wisp of water splash his face. “Food”! He said when he sat upright in shock. “Yay, Goat Boy is alive”, the cyclopes, Tyson, said bouncing up and down, shaking the floor a little bit. Grover rubbed his eyes and looked at me in confusion, then spotted my brother and screamed, trying to run away. “Hey, hey calm down. We won’t hurt you”, I said and put my hand on my brother’s snout. The satyr shivered in fear and stared at me with big brown eyes, “No, sea titans are killers. They eat innocent little babies and destroy beaches. They only cause devastation and death to everyone around them”. I glanced at my brother with a raised eyebrow. He looked at me back and backed away. Somehow that sounded familiar.

“There, now the scary dragon backed off”, I said and helped him up. For some reason he looked familiar, like someone from a past that I couldn’t remember far enough into. Oh well, I am happy the way I am now. Grover nervously bleated in protest, but tried to ignore the huge lumbering dragon resting in the river. He went over his job as a protector and was going to find the wild god Pan someday like his entire family tried to do thousands of times. He said none had survived, but wouldn’t that sign hit him in the head with a shovel? Really, he was afraid of my harmless, somewhat vegetarian brother and he wasn’t afraid to go on a suicide mission to find some god that was most likely dead. 

“So if you need to find Pan, what are you doing down here”? I asked, knowing this was nothing like the wild, more like an ancient cave dug by massive Lopa worms, discovered by humans, fixed up by humans, and abandoned with Luke’s army marching through it. “I-I could feel his presence and all that nature magic...It is coming from over there, come on Tyson”, he jumped up and raced over the river, avoiding the body of a broken demigod. Tyson gave me a pleading look to come with him and I did, Kyrogre following far behind as I was dragged through the tunnel by the cyclops. I felt like a floppy umbrella with his strength, I bet he could lift my twenty ton brother in the air as if he was a big rock. I laughed at the image of my brother hanging limp while Tyson ran around with him laughing and my brother would be staring into the distance.

Suddenly the tunnel opened into a cave like the one we were just in, covered with crystals and lots of roots leaking through the walls. Only in the center was a bed with lots of extinct animals and dragons. A mammoth, a saber tooth tiger, a dodobird, and even a spike covered dragon now long gone. On the bed sat a very old satyr who looked at us with greying eyes. “Hello there Grover, Tyson, Kyrogre, and Perseus, welcome to my resting place”, he said to us. I wanted to know how he knew my name or my brother’s, not to mention the other two. “hello Mr. Goat man”, Tyson said with a sensier smile. Really? Was he used to this stuff? “L-Lord Pan”, Grover stammered and dropped to his goat knees like a servant to his master. Tyson copied him, looking bulky next to the satyr, especially since he had no idea what he was doing. I bowed respectfully, the way I was taught by Athrodox in case I ran into someone powerful and didn’t want to die. Kyrogre bowed too, curving his talons and leaning back so he could be triangular and still be elegant.

“Rise children, you have done well in your journey so I have chosen you to spread the message of my death”. I still had no idea what was going on and I was supposed to tell everyone that he was dead? “Great Pan, but you aren’t dead. The wild desperately needs your help”, Grover pleaded. “There is nothing I can do to save it, I am just as powerless as you alone, but if you get the satyr's main focus on saving the wild instead of just focusing on me then it has a chance. I am the god of the wild, not its protector”. God of the wild, ok I can deal with that. Wait, that means other gods are real, oh great just what I need, someone who wants to control me. Grover began to sob in apology to the great god before him. “Grover for showing great loyalty towards me, Tyson for your kind nature, and Percy and Kyrogre for your respect for your need to protect the wilderness of the sea and a forest a while back. I thank you for doing that for the animals and dragons there”. “No problem, I will do anything for the dragons so can I go home now”? I asked, hoping this dude would direct me to the sea exit. He only chuckled at my question, “The Labyrinth still has plans for you and your brother my boy, but let me grant you some wisdom to help slow down your enemies. Wake the man in the golden coffin up, just simply wake him”. 

Wake who up? A golden coffin? How will that help me stop my enemies? Did these “enemies” have something to do with that Luke guy and his army of freaks and weirdos? “I know you have questions, but you need to go and remember what I said”. I nodded, still confused as a water serpent in the sahara. “What about us lord, should we go with him”? Grover asked. “Yeah, he is awesome”, Tyson said gleefully, dancing on his tiptoes. “No, you two shall stay here and wait for your comrades, from what the roots tell me they are on their way here after visiting Daedelus”, the goat god said. The dodo bird at his side squaked and pointed her beak back at me. “Oh yes, a little gift from me to help you along. Good luck favored of Athrodox”. The satyr clicked his fingers and a sizzling sensation went up my muscles. “Um… Ok thanks”, I said, not knowing what he did or what that was.

Suddenly a tunnel opened up, a bright light shining at the end. “Now go, go and find your way home”, Pan said. I ran for the exit as fast as I could with Kyrogre close behind. The tunnel, made of bricks with fancy torches, lay wide enough for my brother and me to run side by side easily. The wall behind us closed, but we kept running, straight into the black room with a big, golden, box.


	8. Golden boy

_ hello everyone, sorry this didn't come out too fast I am very busy, but today I am sick and I have nothing to do, but write so I was able to write two chapters. _

I almost got what the old goat was talking about.  Almost . The golden box was large, big enough to fit a human. Engraved on its side was a bunch of dudes in loincloths beating up people, horses, and dragons, all in Greek style. On the top was something like the Egyptians did with their mummies, something like it was made on top of the body itself, eyes nose and mouth all visible. The guy had his arms at his side and the eyes glowed gold like the rest of it, but brighter. It was somehow hard to make out the guy’s features, like a blurred image of some sort. I really didn’t like the thing, it gave me the creeps and not many boxes of golden eyed dudes freaked me out. 

Was this the same box that goat was telling me about? I wondered what was inside of it. “Hey Ky, what do you think is inside”, I asked. Sure my brother knew as much about the thing as I did, but he has dragon instincts that stop my human curiosity from getting all of us killed. Yes that has happened a few times, but I am alive thanks to my brother so I trust him. “I don’t think we should look brother. It holds a lot of power and whatever is inside there is bad news. This is really weird, it is bad news, but for some reason I feel like it needs to be opened to stop it”. I nodded, first agreeing that it was freaky and evil, second was the fact that we should listen to the god and open it.

Removing the top was pretty easy, golden smoke billowed out of the coffin as the top came off. My brother and I eased it on the ground, careful not to make any noise to attract attention. In the middle was a teenage kid, just a regular kid asleep and drooling as if it was just a regular night in his regular bed. He had short blonde hair and a little scar on his lip wearing shorts and a purple T-shirt. He began grumbling in his sleep saying something like, “Go away Barney, no one likes you”. The air seemed a little more electric around him if a thunderstorm was brewing in the circular room. 

Being the smart guy I was I decided to poke his cheek, surprising myself how squishy they were even though the guy sure wasn’t fat. His eyebrows furrowed and he rolled the other way, making a whining sound. I looked at my brother who was looking into it, black marble eyes wide in curiosity and amusement. He looked at me for what I was going to do next. I had no idea, I never woke a sleeping person before, was it as hard to wake as a sea Titan. There was no water around to splash him with so I just poked him again. Nothing happened. Instead I leaned down and began knocking his cheeks back and forth, trying to get a reaction out of him. His head rolled from side to side and when his face touched my hand they made a slight smacking sound. “Hey, blonde. Wake up”, I said. His eyes fluttered open, blue like the sky on a sunny summer day. Instantly he went into attack mode, pulling a coin out of his pocket and turning into a somewhat short sword. He yelled and swung at my head, narrowly decapitating me.

My brother yelped and jumped back pulling me back with his tail. Now the blonde kid was standing in the box, knees shaking and eyes wide with fright. “Wh-what do you want with me”, he said, arms shaking. “I don’t really know, some old god asked me to wake you up so I did”. He looked around the room as if expecting an army or something. “Where am I? Where did those monsters take me”? I shrugged and  gave him a curious look. “Why were you in that casket”? I asked. He blinked, looking absolutely dubious. My eyes moved from him to under his feet and he followed my gaze. Suddenly he shrieked and jumped ten feet in the air only to float down behind a column. I was not surprised, personally I have seen weirder today so flying people is absolutely cool with me. The casket disintegrated into dust. “Wha-what is that”, he said in shock. Again I just shrugged.

“So we woke him. What now”, Kyrogre asked. “I don’t really know, I was thinking of asking you”, I said sarcastically. “Ask me what”, the guy asked, he must have thought I was talking to him. “Oh not you. Do you know what to do next though”? The guy looked around at the room trying to figure out what next.

“It came from the room with Krono’s casket. Someone might be trying to wake him”, something yelled from behind the huge doors. “I have an idea, we are going to RUN”! I yelled. We all took off back in the tunnel, Blonde close behind. Hisses and roars echoed behind us. I could hear the skittering of claws that weren’t my brother’s since he was right behind me and the other kid who was so frightened he was running ahead.

I knew we couldn’t run forever, I hated land so I tired easily and Kyrogre isn’t the lightest dragon in the world. I am lucky he isn’t sixty tons yet, that would be bad because he would not be able to fit in the tunnels and he would have a harder time getting away. Still, we would get caught sometime.

I gritted my teeth and turned around, the sword from the arena clutched in my hands and facing the red, green, and yellow eyes coming at me. My brother stopped and reared up, turning around on his hind legs, sweeping dust and bones away from where we were. Bones? Yes I was used to them so I didn’t even mention them. “Are you crazy man. There is an entire army coming at us. Run”, the blonde yelled, stopping. My grip on the sword tightened, “They are not after us, they are here for you so run. I have your back”. My brother shifted so he was ready to spring and attack whatever came at us.

The blonde shifted nervously, instincts telling him to run, but heart telling him to stay and fight with the guy in the swimsuit and a dragon who seemed to be fighting at his side. “Go ahead, don’t worry about me I can take them”, I said to him, slightly looking behind me. He listened to me and ran into the darkness, steps fading into the dark.

I could clearly see the monsters coming at me, a pack of hellhounds, more than a hundred demigods, and also some other monsters. I looked at the army, maybe Luke’s entire thing and I wondered if me and my brother would get out alive. “Ready bro”? I asked. My brother turned his head and nodded, then turned back to the army and roared before we charged.

I slashed away the first row and my brother destroyed the next, leaving two piles of dust and demigod bodies. The attack still moved forward even though we defeated the first part easily. Hell hounds jumped at me only to get slashed away by a sword, demigods trying to battle me, but having no chance, Kyrogre causing chaos. The killing seemed endless, like a dream. More monsters came and we must have killed at least a thousand when the attack stopped and we got to rest. My brother was tired and heavy, panting heavily. I leaned against the blood stained wall, wanting to sit down, but there was too much dust and bodies. There was a huge wall made out of corpses and spoils of war, horns, clawed feet, sometimes even heads. It was a little sad, but hey they came at me, I was just protecting myself and my brother. Once again my feet were covered in blood and splinters of bone poked my feet mercilessly. I sometimes stepped on still warms guts because the place was flooded with blood, thick and soupy with the occasional monster ooze. I wanted to throw up when the stench hit me, but the problem was that I had nothing to throw up, I was starving. 

That wasn’t my worst problem, I needed to help my brother. “Come on Ky, we need to find one of those pools of water or something”, I said, trying to get him off the bloody ground. He groaned and reluctantly got up, limping at my side as we searched.


	9. Dragons don't go grocery shopping

****

Three days...It felt like three days. Nonstop revenge from Luke’s army, trying to kill me and my brother. Thankfully we found an entire underground lack filled with seawater. I tried to find out where it came from, but there was no way it came in or out. The bottom glowed with fluorescent seaweed, illuminating the fish that swam by. It was pretty deep, shallow end dropping off into a deeper part so my brother could easily swim around and I could get some energy and some food. The seaweed was edible, I remember seeing some of it in a deep undersea cave, which meant we were deep under the ocean, but there was no way to get back into it. The fish weren’t like the creatures at the bottom of the ocean, no the pressure was the same in the cave as if it were just a lake so there was plenty of fish that we were used to. Angler fish are pretty nasty to eat so I am happy that I have these type of trout. It seemed this once held a sea serpent, but he must have died years ago.

It would have been great if it wasn’t for the monsters. Yes I was more powerful under the sea so it wasn’t a problem, but they just keep coming, filling the water with blood and new skeletons, great. They just caused problems for us and the waves of them lasted for three days. My brother was cut up and weak and I would have looked like I met a helicoprion if it wasn’t for the water healing me. I always wondered where I got that ability, but I never came up for a reason why. 

I had way too much time to think before the attacks, usually an hour or so. It surprised me when my brother nudged my arm. “Percy, have you noticed something, the waves have stopped”. “No, do you think Luke ran out of troops or just gave up”, I asked. My brother grunted and shifted so he was on his back and rubbing it along the stones underneath the seaweed. “Maybe, I know the army was acting on revenge and based on how many came in they were just really pissed, not acting on orders, just rage. Luke would have been there if he actually cared and wanted his troops to not get slaughtered. Most likely he came back to wherever that place was, found the blonde missing and thousands of monsters and demigods missing and stopped the attacks”, he said mouth filling with water. Did I mention Kyrogre was a smartest sea titan I have ever met. I reached over and scratched behind his jaw flukes and he purred, white underbelly vibrating with the sound. 

“You feeling a little better”? I asked after a while. The dragon rolled over and stood up, shaking like a dog from head to tail, drenching me with saltwater. “I want to find mom”, he said and walked out of the cave. I smiled and got out of the water, completely dry. I kept my sword and armor in case we ran into anything else that we didn’t like.

The tunnels were now completely quiet, droplets falling from between the walls and over the bodies laid out, backs against the walls and legs crosses so we could get through without having to knock down a big pile. I trudged ahead and Kyrogre limped behind me, avoiding the toes of warriors from Luke’s fallen army. The stench was almost overwhelming and I almost passed out along the way, before we reached a cave with a glowing crystal ceiling. I knew there was more of the other part of the cave, but I was happy I didn’t have to walk through it. The stench of death faded into an earthy scent and even a little familiar salty scent. My brother certainly smelled it and almost knocked me over, forging ahead and limping excitedly. 

“Wait for me”, I yelled as he ran ahead. Thanks to his big butt I couldn’t see anything ahead so I didn’t realize we were out until we ran into sunlight of the beach. Familiar small dragons flew overhead and squawked a welcome as we came out. Hot sand once more sunk between my blood stained toes. The gentle wind of the ocean once again blew through my hair and waves glittered in the distance. Rocks scattered around the beach, all covered in droppings or muscles, familiar muscles. Kyrogre ran around and roared at a rock covered with dragons, making them fly away as he fell into the waves and began rolling in the waves.

I smiled at the scene, we had made it out. We were once again free from the grasp of all this magical Greek stuff. Suddenly a dragon flew down and landed at my feet, bowing its head in shame. “I am sorry oh great prince. I lead you to an evil place that swallowed you up. I-I just wanted to please you, but I just put you in danger. Please, just kill me, I deserve to die if I caused you so much trouble”, He pleaded at my feet. He did cause the discovery of the cave, but it wasn’t his fault, it was mine and my brother’s for going down there even though he did provide a warning. “Why must I kill you? You have done nothing wrong. I asked you about the cave and you told me no one comes out alive. My entrance there is no one’s fault, but my own. You have done absolutely nothing wrong. Thank you for trying to warn me”, I said and stoked his scaled cheek. He embraced my touch with so much need and neglect. I looked at him sadly, he reminded me of Beeping, I wonder what she was doing now, but something told me she was safe with Nico and wherever he was. 

There was a huge rumble deep within the earth, shocking all of the little dragons into the sky, including our little friend. Kyrogre’s head shot out of the water, searching around for anything dangerous. he looked rather funny, eyes wide and neck higher than it should be when he was standing. Behind me the tunnel collapsed on itself and it felt like a layer of the earth’s crust just went poof. I stumbled into a rock and the sea churned huge waves rolled over the island drenching the rocks and dried up seaweed and flies living in tiny holes. Suddenly the sea was calm again, water leaking out of the holes of the rocks and making small streams back into the ocean. I got off the ground, rubbing my head which slammed against a rock, but healed thanks to the splash. 

“Are you ok my prince”, my little friend said, leaning. “Oh yes just fine. That was weird”. My brother bounded over and pushed me away and in the waves where, he shoved my face under, thinking I got hurt. “Relax Ky, I am not hurt”, I said out of his talons. He sighed in relief and gave me something like a hug. My feet dangled from him as he stood up and fell backwards into the waves, making a big splash. I launched out of his grasped with a push of the currents around me to propel me. Kyrogre rolled over and began jumping at me in the shallow water, only to land in more water and sand. It seemed like a dream, playing with my brother in the sunlight and ocean water. If it was, it was a wonderful dream, but it was not.

Suddenly a thunderous roar echoed over the sea, scaring all of the little dragons once again. I recognized the roar and what it meant, “BOYS I AM BACK”. “Mom’s here”, Kyrogre bounced happily and jumped toward the sound, using the waves to get him there faster. I followed him, emerging on land last, not even thinking of drying myself off I was so excited. Sure enough my mother waited on the beach, scanning the area for her sons. Finally she spotted us running towards her so she bent her head down to embrace us. I hugged her giant snout and my brother danced around her, barking and asking for food. “Sorry I was gone so long boys, you hungry”? She asked. “Yeah”, Kyrogre yipped. She lifted her head in the air and began moving her head back and forth. Suddenly she dropped a whole mess of pink goop onto us to eat. You may think it is disgusting, but when you get past the smell and the sliminess, it is rather delicious. I can eat raw fish like that and I don’t get sick so I am completely fine with it.

** “Where are we going to go next”, Kyrogre asked as soon as he was done with the mix of lobster and shrimp. Our mother raised her head and looked east. “We are going to go that way for the winter. Your father is waiting for us there”, she said. She motioned us into the ocean with a flick of her fluke and we followed plunging into the waves. Just like last year, we traveled over to Africa in the migration and just like every year, we were late. **


	10. I blame you, you blame me, yes were one big family

_ Hello everyone, now I planned to post this in a while to get the "year has passed" effect, but I am not Rick, I don't try to torture the people who read my stories. Anyway, just a warning, in the story a year has passed and just as Louisiana's a hand, the story will be different on many different levels and this time not just the characters.  _

I was dreaming of a camp of some sort. It looked like a camp with activities, cabins, a lake, a picnic area, and a forest with lots of kids running around in the same shirts. All of it looked pretty peaceful, but something was stirring in the air. The sky was overflowing with as much clouds as there were outside. For some reason, it inspired fear into the camp, making people nervous. My vision switched to a cabin, more ordinary than the rest around it. The paint was peeling and the floor was rickety and worn from many feet on its surface. Up on the rim of the roof hung two snakes climbing up a staff, one of the things on hospitals. It had this aura of goofiness around it like you expected a bunch of comedians to walk out and trip down the stairs and fall flat on their faces. 

Suddenly my old friend Nico walked out and stretched, he looked a little taller and his hair was flattened at one side of his head. When he was done he slouched over, relaxed and muscles loose. A shadow passed over the cabin and a familiar death titan landed in front of him, making chirping sounds in greeting. “Beeping, good morning”, Nico said and hugged the titan’s head. Beeping made a deep purring sound and lifted her head, taking Nico with her, she then set him down. Nico released her and she made a series of gurgling noises that only I could understand. Nico smiled and began petting her ear, “I really need to take dragon talking lessons from Percy someday”. Suddenly a blonde girl bounced up to the steps, head high, “Nico, Chiron wants to see you”, she said, eyes matching the sky, but they were a little scarier. “No good morning or anything Annabeth? Beeping said good morning and she is a dragon. I would imagine you would be a bit more polite”. Annabeth rolled her eyes, “For the last time, Nico. Dragons can’t talk”. Beeping hissed at Annabeth, I heard her calling the girl a stubborn know it all and a dragon hater. “Oh yes they can, Beeping is a very smart dragon and I know a guy who can speak to her. What is with you and Grover with hating dragons, even Beeping. Everyone likes Beeping, even a Clarisse. I know Grover had one of his ‘projects’ eaten by dragons, but you have no reason”. Annabeth glared at Nico, “Now is not the time. Chiron needs you. NOW”! Nico raised his hands in the air and began walking. Out of nowhere Beeping dove between his legs and lifted her head up. He yelped at the surprise, but found a place between her shoulders to hang sit on. Beeping flapped her wings and took flight, getting Nico to a big blue house in the distance faster than Annabeth which angered her. 

Nico landed near the porch, a nice marble on with stairs climbing up to a wrap around marble platform where a horse man and pudgy man sat, playing with cards. “Well look who it is, our most likely suspect”, the man said, purple eyes surveying Nico. Nico rolled his eyes, “You let him watch Sherlock Holmes again, didn't you”? The centaur smiled, “I have no control over what the gods do and yes, he watched the entire season one over again”. “Well the next episode won't be coming out until tonight. What was I supposed to do Chiron”? The man said, placing down another card and smiling while taking another. “Maybe you would actually do your work”, Nico mumbled and sat down on a chair. “What did you ask me for Chiron”? The centaur put down two cards and the man he was playing against slammed his fist against the table in anger. “Well my boy, there has been some problems on Olympus lately, you have noticed the darkening sky and the storms”? Nico looked up, looking at the cloudy sky, flashing with lightning. “Yes, is that why the school I was going to earlier had to shut down, because of all the storms”? Chiron nodded. “Some really important items have been stolen, the weapons of the big three, Zeus’s master bolt, Poseidon’s trident, and Hades’s dark helm. As you may know, gods aren’t allowed to steal other’s weapons directly so it is thought that you and someone else did it”. At this Nico sputtered in shock, “Me? Stealing godly weapons? Why would they think that”? “Calm down Nico, there is no use getting upset, Zeus and Poseidon blame you, but your father is stepping up to defend you. On the other hand, last year there has been reports of a boy who could control water in the Labyrinth and that boy is being accused of being Poseidon's son so naturally your father and Zeus blames him and Poseidon is fighting back. Long story short, you two are in danger because they are pointing fingers at you two for working with Kronos and trying to help him rise again. Since the titan Lord’s progress suddenly decreased, they believe the lord and his minions would take desperate measures now”. Nico was red with rage, his adorable little face trying desperately to not look cute, but utterly failing. Aww. “There is also another matter that is needed to be discussed, Thalia’s tree has been poisoned”. Nico looked like he was about to explode into puppies and kittens with his face on them. “You think I  POISONED THALIA ”, Nico shouted. “No Nico, we don’t mean that, the gods think it could be either of you, but if a war breaks out between the gods, not many will be on Hades’s side so you are going to have to go on a quest to save yourself”. 

Suddenly my dream went black and it only became brighter revealing three types of titans fighting. The first was a pure white sky titan with huge wings made for speed, four legs, and talons sharper than an eagles. The second was a pure black death titan with a dark brown underbelly and golden spots glittering with all types of jewels between the sharp scales. The third was a sea titan with different shades of blue swirling around his skin, spots like pearl. They of course were all trying to kill each other, the sky titan attacking from the sky, trying to take out both of the titan’s eyes, the sea one snapping at the death titan while it was fighting it. Both of them tried to kill the sky titan whenever it dove down, long snakelike body easily moving through the wind of the storm surrounding them. While they did that a golden man sat on a throne with a golden fur on top of him, holding a lightning bolt, a trident, and a black helmet. His voice still rattled through me, “Yes my children, fight, kill each other. That will only make my rise easier”. I remembered how I tried to separate them, but I couldn’t reach them and my voice wouldn’t work. When I tried to yell, all that came out was a roll of thunder. 

I looked up at the dark rainclouds over my head watching as they sometimes lit up with lightning. I could feel the cold water reaching my toes and licking them, just to go back into the choppy sea. Wind whipped the palm trees above me, howling and bending them over till they almost touched the ground. I was laying on top of my brother’s underbelly as he slept in a playing dead curling position, mouth agape and top of his head in the sand. My mother was laying beside us, head on her talons and her tail taking up most of the beach. I remembered where we were, Florida. It had been a stormy half year indeed, lots of earthquakes too. 

The wind was getting louder and I found it hard to keep myself on the ground. Suddenly a branch broke off and hurtled strait for me and my brother. “KYROGRE, WAKE UP”! I yelled through the wind. He jumped up in shock and I rammed into him, making him stumble out of the way before the branch impaled the place we had once been, right where I had been sleeping and if I didn’t react, I would have been dead along with my brother. I gulped at the coincidence, slowly backing away from the branch that almost turned us into a shish kabob. There was another rumbling and more lightning in the sky. 

My mother yawned and looked at us tiredly, “What’s going on. I heard yelling”. I was in too much shock to speak, my knees shook, my life had just flashed in front of my eyes. I had almost died. I sunk to the ground and ran my fingers through my hair, shorter than what it was supposed to be thanks to my mother getting tired of it and thinking she could give me a haircut by biting my hair off. It was now a slightly shorter, uneven mess. “Mother, that stick almost killed us”, my brother yelped at her. He was now bigger than he was when we had our little adventure in the maze a year ago. My mother’s nose wrinkled up, distorting the extra white spot that sat in front of her snout that differed her from other dragons. Hey, titans were different too, some are a darker shade of black, some are grey, and I even met one that was more of a blue, but other than that they had different spots that were white or a scar that differed them. My brother’s flukes were white, my mother had a spot,  and Kyrogre’s father’s feet were white on the underside.

Suddenly my mother roared, rivaling the thunder’s. She turned around and began tearing the stick to shreds and destroyed a few trees along the beach so they wouldn’t dare try to harm her sons again. I know, she needs anger management classes, but she stepped on most of the ones she went to. “Come on boys. I feel a hurricane coming and I don’t want you two almost getting killed again by these worthless trees”, she growled, glaring at the decapitated palms and oaks. I reluctantly got up and entered the icy sea, wind almost blowing me away and waves almost knocking me over. My mother didn’t have to go far before she was so far out she could use her tail and not have any problems, it took a little longer for my brother since he wasn’t as large. Me, I just used the currents like always. The fight played on over and over in my head, the golden man’s voice, and the dragons. Someone was going to be in danger and I had a bad feeling it was going to be me.


	11. Hurricane Killer Trees

_ I am really tired after writing this and I hope it is ok. Also I am trying my best to make the characters the way I see them in this, but it is going to be hard to shine some light on the good side of this Annabeth, especially since she is stubborn and doesn't like dragons. The others will be easy, but it hard to make annoying people look good, I mean look at Misa from Death Note. Anyway I wish you all a great day. _

The sea, was not liking us this morning. The hurricane was so bad, I couldn’t even see my family. So I didn’t get lost, Kyrogre stuck me under his wing. The waves were so bad we couldn’t even go up to breath without getting a mouthful of seawater. Usually during these situations, sea titans would dive down deep and try to swim out of the storm since they could hold their breath up to an hour, but the currents wouldn’t let us. Where we were the currents there were going upwards than it was complete chaos with them. Every part at the top swept right left, forward, and back making it impossible to swim strait. I tried my best to bend them, but they just did what they wanted and  changed direction. In the sky the winds were the same and would knock us around and we would lose each other. As if we didn’t do that already.

After a while, I couldn’t hear my mother’s roars of frustration in the water anymore. I looked over at Kyrogre who was trying to swim strait. “Kyrogre, where is mom”, I said. He could hear me through the water and realized that our mother was gone, stopping and looking around to see nothing, but darkness and waves. My brother lifted his head to the surface and roared. Huge waves crashed around, the wind was roaring louder than he could. We couldn’t hear her. “MOM”! I yelled, only to hear the roll of thunder and crack of lightning. Suddenly a wave crashed on top of us, knocking me out of my brother’s wing and sending him spinning through the ocean unconscious. A part of a tree from the mainland floated around, most likely been carried off by the strong winds, I mean, these winds could send sixty ton titans back into the sea where it is less dangerous, a branch being thrown around is not surprising. I tried to swim to the dark shape that was my brother, but a current threw me off course. I tried to fight it, but that got me into bigger trouble, being shot into a faster one that launched me at the same stick. I rolled over so I didn’t crash head first and break my skull. Instead my back hit the trunk and a wave of pain wracked me into a state where I couldn’t move. The last thing I remember was thinking thankfully that it wasn’t my head or my brain would have gotten crushed.

 

I groaned, only feeling intense pain in my back and the uncomfortable whatever I was sleeping on. I knew it wasn’t sand or rock, it was something woven and on the ground. Everything around me was wet and the air stank with moss, algae and pond scum, a horrible smell indeed. I also had something on top of me, something like a blanket, but I haven’t felt a blanket on me in years so it was weird. 

Above me I heard breathing, and then someone say in a deep, familiar, childish voice, “He is moving and making noises”. I knew that voice and I tried to open my eyes, but there was too much sunlight, even though it only shone in certain places. “Oh great he is awake. Percy, Percy”, another familiar voice said. I recognized it from last night as Nico’s. Nico was here? Where was here? What happened to Kyrogre. 

I wanted to jump up out of wherever I was, but my back was in so much pain, I could only roll over to a spot where sunlight didn’t shine. I looked up at a familiar one eyed face looking down at me with concern and Nico trying to look over him. Over to my right the blonde girl from my dream sat gettin a vitamin out of a jar. All around me there were sounds of dragons chirping with the voices of birds along with them. We were in some kind of woven hut made of bramble, sunlight streaming through the gaps. “Hey, wake up, can you hear me”? Nico asked in a slow tone as if I was hard at hearing. “Yes…” I groaned and once again tried to get up. 

“Stop, you are going to hurt yourself”, Annabeth said with a little bit of disgust and she pushed me down as soon as she came over. I reluctantly obeyed and stayed down. “Where...Where is my brother”? I asked, shocked at how feeble I sounded. “The dragon is outside with Beeping. We found you on the beach after we paid a visit to a monster infested ship, you were lying in the sand with your brother trying to wake you. You did a major number on yourself”, Nico said, trying his best to comfort me. “Speaking of, what the hell did you do to your back, it is like you got hit by a truck or something. I am surprised you aren’t dead”, the girl said. “There was a storm...Lots of really strong currents and...One pushed me into a tree that was in the water”. Annabeth winced and Nico looked off into the distance in wonder. “What the heck were you doing in the ocean with a category five hurricane? Everyone knows that is stupid to go out in one”, she scolded. I chuckled a little, yes going out into that storm was stupid, but it was even more stupid to sit on a beach while waves pound you and debris flies everywhere. Now  that would have killed me and  that would have been stupid.

“Eat this it will help you”, the girl handed me a purple vitamin. “Do you have this in blue”, I joked, watching as she rolled her eyes, Nico snickered and Tyson rolled over laughing as if the joke would kill a man. I smiled and took the vitamin, instantly feeling better. My stiff back loosened as if I just had a nice, relaxing stretch, my head now felt clear and functional, I could also feel my other muscles again, making me realize that they had put me in pants. I could now see better and the sun didn’t bother me. I sat up, finally being able to move and get a better look at my surroundings and from what I was guessing, we were in a swamp. The chattering of dragons became clear conversations and the birds... they still sounded like birds. On the other hand, there was another thing coming toward us and it wasn’t a regular dragon. No one else in the place realized it, but Tyson, who was watching me like a hawk, read my expression of worry. “Is there something wrong”, he asked me. Really? This guy had a nose, couldn’t he use it? “Something doesn’t smell right”, I commented and looked for an exit.

Annabeth looked at me with a raised eyebrow, I know humans aren’t supposed to have sharp noses, but thanks to my ties with Athrodox, I could smell a little better than regular humans. I bet Annabeth had just made a list to why I might be a monster and that was just added to it. “Really, do you know what it is”? Nico asked, not noticing Annabeth’s look. “It smells like...doughnuts”. Tyson’s head popped up at my words, “Doughnuts”?. I nodded which was a mistake because he smile and ran out the door with a gleeful yell, “Doughnuts”!”Tyson come back”, Nico yelled and we all ran after him.

Beeping and my brother were waiting outside, watching as Tyson ran by with confused faces.  “Kyrogre, Beeping we need to stop him before he hurts himself”, I yelled and the dragons obeyed without hesitation. Beeping took off with Nico and I jumped on Kyrogre, taking off down the path faster than Annabeth could run. “Wait for me”, she yelled and ran as fast as she could, grumping at being slower than a twenty three ton dragon with short legs.

We almost fell off a cliff, standing on a ledge with lots of water from the hurricane and moss dripping down. At the bottom in the stupidest place you could put a building  was a building that looked completely intact. It looked like a gas station stop with those big lines that make up some type of decoration. The walls were white and there was a fuzzy purple monster eating a round line thing in the shape of a circle. “Monster doughnuts”? Annabeth asked. I narrowed my eyes, “How can you tell what it is”, I asked, really confused. “That is what the sign says”, she retorted back to me. Nico looked over me, his brown eyes flowing over my confused face. “Percy, can you read”, he asked. It wasn’t rude, it was polite. I thought a second, the word “read” jumbling in my very limited word collection. “Uh…what does that mean”? “Percy, can you tell what those glowing pop out things are saying”, Annabeth said in a slow voice like I didn’t understand. You don’t know one thing and people think you are stupid. “No, is there something wrong with that”? 

Annabeth groaned, “Great, I am now going to die with  three idiots”. Nico didn’t throw a fit like she did, instead he just smiled kindly. “Don’t worry Percy. I have flaws too, so does Annabeth, in fact one of them almost killed her in that maze”, Nico’s eyes trailed over to Annabeth whose face turned red with embarrassment. 

I spotted Tyson at the bottom of the cliff happily carrying a box of chocolate doughnuts while stuffing some in his mouth. That was when I saw the monster, a green, six headed dragon with red frills and glowing green eyes. Annabeth and Nico saw it too along with the dragons who roared in warning. Tyson stopped and stared at us in questioning. Without thinking I plunged my hand into the jeans they had put on me and pulled out a pen, uncapped in and threw it at the monster. I was surprised when it turned into a sword and sliced through the air, landing right in the middle of the monster’s forehead and sinking into the chest of the creature. It roared in pain, the two parts of its head dropping uselessly on the ground. Tyson saw what I did, yelped when he saw the monster and ran up the cliff, dropping most of his doughnuts. Annabeth stared at the creature, waiting for something to happen, but it never did. The dragon like thing looked at its sliced head and sword sizzling though its body until the sword landed with a clank on the ground. “The heads...they aren’t regrowing”. “Annabeth, now is not the time for worrying about the hydra’s heads not regrowing, now is the time for RUNNING”! Nico yelled and grabbed her, climbing on Beeping. The death titan only gave a snort of disapproval before taking off over the trees. I grabbed Tyson and flung him on Kyrogre, hanging on tight as my brother spread his roundish wings and took flight, the white webbed scales making him seem more white than he really was.


	12. hydras of war

I knew a lot of dragons who could maneuver through trees, some who could maneuver through water. This, hydra I think it is called, put those dragons to shame. My brother and I were flying full speed over the swamp, Nico and Annabeth to our right, and this thing was right below us knocking down trees like they were rocks balance on top of each other, able to be knocked down any second. Not only that, but it was fast, even with two halves of a head slowing it down. If it  was slowing the monster down, I wouldn’t have noticed it. 

“We are not going to outrun it Percy, we should fight it”, Kyrogre said, shaking his head in impatience. “It is not as easy as you would expect Kyrogre. The heads on a hydra grow back, but that isn’t the worst of it. Once they are cut off, two more grow from that head. The only way to stop it would be to burn the stumps”, Beeping squawked. I began to wonder why the one head I killed didn’t grow into another, maybe I stunted it’s spine. “Can’t you breath fire. You are a death titan”, Kyrogre said to Beeping. She snorted in insult and snapped back, “I can’t yet. I am old enough”. “Well I’m sorry I don’t know when is the time you start to breath fire. I owe you my highest apologies my queen of wisdom”, Kyrogre mocked. “This not the time for arguing you two, I will ask Nico”, I yelled, sitting back on Kyrogre’s shoulders and raising my hands in a stop motion. The dragons snorted and went back to flying, faces facing toward a city coming up. 

“Ask me what”? Nico asked, a slight blush of me mentioning him. “What are we going to do about the hydra. We aren’t going to lose it and with our luck this thing will know how to swim”, I yelled at him. For some reason he turned redder, opening and closing his mouth to answer. “There is no other thing we  can do. We all go down there and try to fight it. Now Nico, direct the dragons down there NOW”! Nico looked over at Annabeth with an angry flame in his eyes, “Look Wise Girl, this isn’t your quest. This is my quest and we do what I say and go down to fight that monster so he doesn’t destroy that town over there”. Beeping roared in agreement and went down towards a snaking river that Nico was directing her to. I followed, Kyrogre making a wide bank, then folded his wings into a dive. The monster, whose focus was on Beeping, didn’t notice us descending right onto its back. I heard a loud crack and the creature went down, heads flailing. Its back haunches lay limp, it’s emerald green elephant skin torn and bloody, changing colors on places where Kyrogre’s feet touched down. One of the heads almost got him, lashing out and snapping almost in full three sixty. My brother thankfully jumped out of the way and flapped his wings, in a distracting flurry. 

I jumped off Kyrogre’s back landing in the muddy water and sinking up to my knees. “AHOY! LAND LUBBER BLUBBER! Seen any whales other than you”?I yelled. I had heard the insult a lot between crab fishermen and I always wanted to use it on someone or something. The monster’s frills laid back in annoyance and all the heads hissed in unison. It dragged its hind legs and short tail behind it as the hydra turned to face me, heads snapping, hoping for a tasty meal. I began waving my arms to keep its attention on me while Nico went behind it and stabbed it in the back. The monster roared in pain, eyes wide in shock, but the stupid thing didn’t die. No, now its back was broken, it had a stygian sword in its back, and it was angrier than before. 

It wheeled on Nico, spluttering and angry, one head saw Annabeth coming and struck at her. Beeping roared and tried to help by spitting venom on it, but it didn’t do much to the thing’s physical health. It just made a bunch of holes in its body and made it more mad. What was up with this thing? Usually it would be dead by now, but it isn’t. Was the  only way to kill it cutting off the heads and burning the nubs? 

Tried my best to fight off the poison from the beast, finding the pen sword was back in the pocket of the jeans I had on. I have no idea on how it got there, but at closer inspection, I could see that it was the same bronze sword in the arena. It had lines on it that somehow clicked in my brain as the word “Anaklusmos” or Riptide. Strange, I don’t even know how to read, not to mention this strange form of writing that you do not see on ships today. Then my afternoon got even stranger when a shout echoed from behind me, a shout I didn’t recognize. I turned around to see a flaming cannonball hurling at my face. I yelped in shock and shoved my brother out of the way, getting out of the ball’s way as it hit the hydra and turned it into dust. Really? A sea titan landed on that thing and all we really needed was a cannonball?

“Oi, who goes there”, the voice yelled again from the prow of a big, rusty, old fashioned ship that reminded me of the ones I’ve seen that sunk in the Civil War. Yes I heard about that and it was a fun tour in that museum that I may have snuck in to check out a thing that had been bothering me for weeks. What? Can you blame me, and my curiosity got the best of me. The best part was they gave away free ice cream for people under twelve and guess how old I was.

“Hi Clarisse”, Annabeth yelled, sincerely knowing her and admiring her. The boat soon pulled up to where we were and stopped so Clarisse could get a better look at the group. “Nico, Annabeth, Beeping? What are you doing here? Your quest is to go to Hades’s palace and retrieve the lightning bolt”, she snorted at the group, but winked at Beeping, “And who is this guy”? 

I decided I shouldn’t speak since I didn’t know her and she certainly didn’t know me. “Clarisse, this is Percy, the guy who was from that arena and introduced me to Beeping. Percy this is the daughter of the war god, Clarisse”, Nico introduced us. Clarisse’s eyes scanned me and I suddenly felt self conscious and in danger, the sudden need to put some armour on and keep a sword in hand. She was a large girl indeed with long, straight brown hair that fell all the way down her back. Her biceps were almost like a man’s, big and meaty, looking like she had the strength to take on a young titan. A full grown titan could have had a hard time eating her, but she would be able to take down one younger than my brother. She wore armour, bronze and etched with designs of a male warrior, abs, chest, and even a little outie belly button.

“You’re right Nico, he is hot”, she stated, looking at me with amusement. I actually knew what the term meant, either really warm or good looking. Good looking was most likely what she meant. Nico blushed so bright red he might have rivaled an apple. He mumbled something under his breath, something that sounded like, “He isn’t just ‘hot”. I chuckled and patted him on the shoulder, “thank you, that is very kind”. Nico somehow blushed a whole lot more, his neck was starting to go red now.

“What about the other question I asked Nico, why are you here”? Clarisse stated. Nico looked at her, now realizing that she was there and she meant bad news. “My father didn’t steal those weapons and I bet neither did any of the children of the big three wherever they are. I know it was Luke, I know his army is still out there and they are reforming. I just saw a cruise ship with warriors already on it and even your little friend Chris Rodriguez. Also, Grover has been kidnapped by a cyclopes and is going to be dinner if I don’t go into the sea of monsters and rescue him, Thalia will die, the camp will be destroyed, and Kronos will rise. Please, let us go to the sea and we can help you”. Nico put on the cutest face in the world, big puppy eyes, a pouted lip, and eyebrows up. Those big brown eyes of his glittered in the light of the sunshine and just drew everything around it in. I just stared at him, saying “Aww” out loud. Up on deck, Clarisse tried to look away, but her lighter brown eyes kept drifting to Nico’s. I could see her trying to resist, but I was already pulled in like a bag in a tornado, an adorable, brown eyed, tornado. “Ugh, fine”! She finally said and Nico laughed in triumph. “But on one condition, I am the leader of this quest and you do what I say, get it Di Angelo. I will get the fleece to save the camp and I will get all the cake for this quest, you can have whatever getting the god’s weapons back will earn you”. Nico nodded and saluted her, looking like a loyal sailor ready to serve his captain. Tyson copied him and giggled as he did so while Annabeth rolled her eyes and nodded.

“Now what is he going to do”, she asked motioning to me. “I will do whatever, Nico is my friend and so is Beeping, I will assist as much as I can with this ‘quest’ and try to help along the way”. Clarisse narrowed her eyes, “Listen Percy, I know you are good looking and all, but this is a dangerous quest, full of monsters and dangerous waters. I know we just met, but it is probably safer that you not come”. I understood, but I wanted to help. I wanted to help Nico the best I could and I didn’t just want to wait on the beach for my mother to find us, I wanted to help someone. “But I would like to aid you”. “Clarisse, he could be very useful. I mean, he can talk to dragons and he could fight, he beat me before”, Nico argued. “Nico, there is no such thing as a person who can talk to dragons”, Clarisse stated stubbornly. “Thank You”, Annabeth said, sounding relieved, but Nico, Tyson, and Beeping were being stubborn. Tyson decided to pick me up and hold me under his arm and then patted me on the shoulder with a determined look on his face. Beeping was squawking and fluttering, “Please Clarisse, he can understand us even though you don’t”. Nico put on his best begging face again and the battle began, Clarisse didn’t want to back down and neither did Annabeth.

Kyrogre actually joined the fight, roaring in fury for Clarisse pointing out that I was weak. His tail slapped in the water and he flapped his wings in agitation and stood up on his hind legs to look more intimidating. “Look, that dragon is his brother and he is defending Percy’s right to go on this quest. He is a demigod too”. I watched as Clarisse argued while green skinned men ran along deck, getting harpoons and weapons that would hurt my brother. “Everyone stop! I don’t want to get you all hurt or in trouble alright. Me and my brother will just leave you and wait for our mother, you guys go along and use Beeping, she could talk to other dragons and get help if you need it. I don’t want to bother you anymore”, I said, finally stopping the fight. I saw the harpoons were being loaded and ready to fire at my brother. I didn’t want that to happen. “Come on Ky”.

The sea titan gave one last snort of disgust and readied himself for flight, flicking his tail to invite me on. I jumped up on his back and positioned myself between his neck and shoulders. “Wait! D-don’t go”, Tyson wailed and grabbed onto my leg. I was surprised at his actions, he was sobbing against my leg, refusing to let go. “Hey, there is no need to cry big guy”, I said and patted his shoulder. “B-but when we first met. Y-you saved my life and d-didn’t think of me as a monster. No one, but Nico has done that for me”. He kept sobbing into my leg and I looked at my brother, asking him to lay down a bit. He obliged and I sunk lower to Tyson, able to pull him up and hug him. The guy kept sobbing into my chest and I hugged him, patting his back and whispering kind words. Everyone else stared at us in shock, me being the only person to realize all the attention.

“Well Tyson are you coming or not”? Clarisse yelled, rather rudely if you ask me. Nico looked sad, but Annabeth looked relieved to get away from all the dragons and crazy dudes who talk to them and can’t read. “NO”! Tyson yelled and hugged me tighter. The kid sure had some grip, it was beginning to hurt. 

Clarisse’s eyes narrowed at the cyclopes, “What”?! “I don’t want to go with you and your mean group of meanies”, Tyson yelled like a six year old kid I once met who wanted to touch the “big black dragon”. Guess who that could be. Annabeth looked angry, “Tyson, get on the boat now”. The cyclopes shook his head on my chest and squeezed tighter, making me squeak in pain a bit. 

“I will go with Percy too”, Beeping said, even though no one could understand her. When she began moving toward me, but Nico almost protested. With her head high and nose in the air at Annabeth she came over and flopped down next to Tyson, looking rather stubborn and determined. Now Nico was dancing on his feet, one of his quest mates was going with Clarisse on a ship full of zombies while most of the others wanted me and my brother to go. “You guys better get on board or me, Annabeth, and Nico are leaving. Got that punks”. Nico’s fists were tightening and he was looking between the ship and his friends. “Annabeth, do you really want to go with Clarisse”? He asked. Annabeth crossed her arms and nodded. “Fine then, I am going to go with Percy and fly overhead on Beeping. How does that sound Tyson”? Tyson smiled and nodded, “I like that idea, I can stay with Percy”. “Percy how about you”? I nodded, “I can go with that and if Ky gets tired, we can go in the sea, sound good bro”. My dragon for a brother got up on all fours and shook from head to tail, wings readied for flight. “I am as ready as you are”. 

Before any of the people on the ship could protest the dragons took flight and circled for the ship to move.


	13. Quick Secrets

_ Sorry this is a short chapter, but I am not Rick, I am not good with descriptions and well, we will get to know Grover a little better and a hint at Nico's past. What happened to him here? Where does he go? Why is his sister the biggest douche in the universe?(there is a song celebrating her doucheness) Not all of the answers are here. I tricked you for a second there ha ha...ha...I think I am going to be sick. _

We had been flying around for hours, catching fish, goofing off in flight, and Beeping got her first swimming lesson. Of course she couldn't swim very well or hold her breath that long so she decided to stay in the sky. Down below we saw the zombie dudes doing their job and Annabeth helping out. Together Clarisse and her made battle plans over tea, Annabeth reading and studying drinking an over creamed coffee while Clarisse ate a strawberry cake, looking absolutely ecstatic.

Nico saw me looking at the scene with the two girls and steered closer to talk. “Clarisse isn't that bad, as long as you don't mess with her cake”. I raised an eyebrow, “Cake? What is so important about cake”? Nico shrugged, “I don't really know, but what I do know is that you can get along with Clarisse just fine if you leave her alone when she has her cake and Annabeth. I don't know what has gotten into her, she is usually not like this”. “Like what”? I asked. “Well, grumpy, mean, rude. She doesn't act like that all the time, she is usually upbeat, supportive, and even funny at times, but now...I don’t know what’s up with her”. 

I thought long and hard on how some people don’t like dragons. There were people who blamed them for profit damage either on crops or animals. There were people who had a pet, family member, or friend carried off by a dragon before. There were people who see dragons as annoying creatures that “destroy” the environment and burn down forests and towns with their fire, but really humans do enough of that and dragons are just helping out with the population. Ask my friend the scientist who I met on the beach studying the behavior of dune crawlers, very poisonous dragons. He says there would be too many people without dragons and it would destroy the earth if humans killed them all. They are also known to keep a certain deadly disease at bay.

Usually the smart people would respect dragons, but Annabeth didn’t like them for some reason. “Nico, your friend Grover, he doesn’t like dragons”. Nico looked at me confused, “You know Grover”? I nodded, “Yes I know Grover, I met him back in that maze with Tyson. Anyway, why doesn’t he like dragons”? 

Nico shifted on Beeping, now sitting back on her neck, eyes to the sky watching the white puffy clouds make tire treads across the sky. “I remember Grover telling me a long time ago, back when I was ten in that boarding school I went to at the time. When satyrs are young, like the age of twelve in their years, they have to go practice being a protector by taking care of young children. They kind of went on babysitting jobs, very important babysitting jobs for their future. Then he was assigned a woman’s son. The woman was Sally Jackson and her son was named Percy, Grover said he was cute and fun to be around. Anyway he babysat him for a year and got really attached to the kid, but Sally got a boyfriend, his name was Gabe and he was a complete jerk from what Grover said. On his last day of the job of babysitting the kid, the camp he works at called all the satyrs to a feast that they absolutely, under any circumstances,  have to go to. While he was there Sally decided to go to the beach with her son. Now I was told this news a little later, but Gabe was actually a kidnapper and he took her away and fed her son to a mother sea titan who was sleeping on the beach. I met her and she said that after her son was thrown down the dune, the titan went completely crazy and destroyed most of the beach, eating some of the men who worked for Gabe. Sally got away, but her son was dead and Grover of course was devastated. Luckily the council didn’t count the incident as Grover’s fault and let him move on to protector, but he loved that kid more than his own mother, really he never knew her, but what I am saying it the little baby that got eaten by the sea titan and it was a great hit on Grover, and I am repeating this to emphasize the point, Percy was really important”.

I blew a piece of jet black hair out of my face and thought it over. Of course it would be like that, many people were like that. Blaming dragons for others mistakes or doings and having...Wait. HOLY GOD OF CREATION!

I was so shocked I almost fell off of Kyrogre, but he caught me with a silent yelp of surprise. “Percy are you ok”, Nico asked, almost jumping off to save me if I fell, still not knowing that I can fall from an airplane into water and it won’t hurt me. “I-I am the kid Grover was talking about”, I said quietly. Kyrogre shook from head to tail, “Oh yeah! You were and who is the titan who destroys beaches over stupid things, it is Mom and it will forever be mom”. Nico stared at me in shock, then puzzle pieces seemed to piece together in his mind. “You are Percy Jackson, the son of Sally Jackson”? “Well I don’t know any other titans that destroy beaches over stupid things or in fact go up on beaches and I know the entire population. Kyrogre has this tendency to read my mind and my mother said a bunch of men rolled me down a hill while they took my mother away. It all fits in right and I am the only baby that has ever been fed to my mother”.

Nico’s eyes twinkled with excitement and he began mumbling to himself about Grover and an Empathy link. Just then Annabeth yelled, “Hey, dragon butt heads, we are entering the sea of monsters, watch out for Cilla”.


	14. Yo ho, its Charybdis and Scylla

I looked down below, the ship was heading straight for a huge storm brewing ahead. There was no rain, just lightning and the sea was being sucked into a whirlpool. The clouds, darkest I have ever seen, flashed with lightning, a dangerous thing when you are flying. Kyrogre wanted to go into the water, but I agreed with Nico that it was a bad idea. “The clouds are not what we have to worry about, it is Scylla, the thing that lives in that mountain and eats men off of ships getting eaten by her sister, Charybdis. She swallows up the ocean and spits it out”. 

Percy watched as the whirlpool closed, then a huge blast like a fountain burst out of the sea and making huge waves, almost destroying the ship Annabeth and Clarisse were on. Trash and metal fell from the sky, crashing into the water and hurtling straight for me and my brother who dodged with a roar of annoyance. Once I saw a shark fly by and I could tell what it was thinking and it was just going,  AHHHHHHHHH! The water stopped and the whirlpool appeared again taking in the water around them.

“Holy gods of Creation, that thing is huge and are those braces”, Percy asked, motioning to wires around the monster’s teeth. They looked like braces, they had blue rubber connecting them to the cragged teeth and the wire, thick and bent from ships hitting them, the scary part was some still remained, along with the humans that went down with the ship, beat up bodies only stuck together by sinew or not together at all. 

Percy gulped at all the destruction, even Athrodox would look at it and think,  This thing has destroyed more ships than I have in a thousand years.  “Should we go down and help Annabeth and Clarisse”, Percy asked Nico. A yell echoed across the sea followed by a cannon fire. Percy saw an iron ball fly through the air and hit Cilla’s throat, making her roar in agony. “Um, I think she’s got it under control, right now we need to focus on that”, Nico pointed to a shape hurtling at them faster than she speed of a jet. Percy only had the chance to duck before something resembling a shamoban, a flat viper like dragon with a flat round body and long narrow wings, they were usually a mix of yellow and white that made it look like a porcelain plate,shamoban, desert plate. 

Instead of the usual colors of a shamoban, this thing was lime green and dark green in a more wavelike pattern. Also it didn’t have the large flat boomerang shaped head, no it had seven snake heads with a woman’s face on them. They hissed and spat, blood stained teeth from its last meal. “It’s Scylla, dive”, Nico yelled through the thunder and the two titans dove out of the way before Scylla’s long bearlike claws snatched the humans and cyclopes off the dragons’ backs. I slashed at the talons with the sword which, appeared in my pocket again. The monster screamed as one of her feet came off, dust spilling out and into the wind as the claw plummeted into Charybdis’s mouth, drowning with destroyed ships. 

The dragons rounded back, mindful not to fly too close to Charybdis’s mouth in case a jet of water shot out. Beeping was a faster flyer than Kyrogre so she got more air and had a better time getting away from Scyllas’s talons. The monster steered towards me, body blocking my path while hurtling toward me with outstretched talons. Kyrogre roared and flipped over to smack her with his tail. The white flukes caught her right on the back and pushed her down, before she could get her claws on him. “Nice hit Ky”, I complimented as I watched her hurtle downwards almost landing in the ocean. At the last moment Scylla caught a wind current and soared over the sea for a second before flying up toward us again, heads screaming in fury. 

“I have got this one Kyrogre, you and Tyson go as far as you can away from both of them”, I yelled as the monster flew toward us. “But, what if you fall, big dragon won’t be there to catch you”, Tyson begged as I got ready to jump. “Don’t worry, I think Nico’s got my back and if he doesn’t than I am sure Beeping will so you two go and don’t get hit by Charybdis”. With that I jumped off of the titan and plummeted toward the monster. My sword was in front of me, ready to impale the monster. The blade slashed through any faces that got in my way and Riptide landed on the beast’s underbelly while it was trying to stop and grab me. Scylla roared in pan and slashed the place where I had been.  I fortunately jumped up just in time and spin slashed her other foot, cutting it off so nothing but a stub remained of half that limb. Again, the monster roared in pain and I grabbed her long, rounded tail so I wouldn’t land in the sea and get sucked into her sister’s mouth. The sea suddenly stopped and a huge wave knocked us both over and into the water. On impact, I was still on her tail as she thrashed to get out of the sea. Her stumps made it harder since they were useless to getting her to the surface. Suddenly the mouth opened again and a current pulled me and her toward the gaping hole. 

We both broke the surface for a second, her screaming in a terrified wail and I saw the raging bowl of the sea around us. I was able to grab hold of a grimy, rusted bar that hung from the inside of Charybdis’s mouth, holding on to it and the ship it was attached to between Charybdis’s braces. Scylla tried to claw me, but I let go of her tail and flipped the ship over. Water spilled all around me as I flipped the vessel over. It was fairly small and made of wood and a bit of metal here and there, an old fashioned fisher’s boat with a broken mast and what used to be square shaped sails for getting the wind to move it. The thing was in good shape even though it had been constantly beat by other ship parts and water. It even came with a skeleton, ha ha, that and a bag of chips. Really there was a bag of soggy chips stuck to the broken railing. Suddenly Charybdis’s mouth closed and for a second me and the ship were alone on top of the teeth until a huge wave of water pushed the small ship up and away from Charybdis. I willed the currents to push me out of the next whirlpool’s range and I was able to get away before the mouth almost swallowed me again. I looked around for anyone in the sky, there was none and the sound of cannons, nada.

I yelled for my brother, for the ship, for anyone. I was just alone on this old fishing ship in the middle of an ocean I could never get out of without going through the monster episode again. I could see a lot more wreckage and green skinned bodies floating around. “No”, I whispered to myself and made the currents turn me towards the rubble. I could see the ship’s rusty metal and a wet half eaten cake in the water, along with the floating limbs of zombie soldiers. I looked around, there wasn’t any life in sight, but I caught sight of a little body floating back up in the water wearing a dark colored shirt. 

“Nico”, I yelled and tried to get him. The boat was too high up for me to get him out of there, so I grabbed a net under the deck and threw it on top of him. Of course he got tangled in it and  I pulled him up. Before I got him out of there I checked if he was still breathing. Yup, he was alive, just unconscious.

Looking around, I only found Annabeth floating on a piece of wood, no Clarisse. I pulled Annabeth up as soon as I got Nico untangled and then had to untangle her too.

Behind me a giant worm like creature burst out of the sea and thrashed, spraying water everywhere. A scream of rage echoed over the sea and bounced off the mountains where Scylla once lived. The creature let out a cry of pain and the water it was shooting turned green with its blood. The scream was heard again followed by, “HOW DARE YOU DESTROY MY CAKE”! At closer inspection I saw a small figure on the monster’s neck tightening a string of barbed wire. My eyes widened at her bravery even though it really wasn’t. It was pure rage over the loss of her cake.

The monster screamed again as she held on to the barbed wire, tying one end around each other to make a knot that would stay there while she tightened it. The monster wailed in pain and thrashed as she slowly tightened the wire, yelling at it for destroying her cake. The wire cut pretty well into the beast’s skin and was slowly choking it to death, not a pretty sight. The barbed wire soon became so embedded in the worm’s neck it was not visible by the telescope I was using. I was covered in moss and barnacles, but I could see somewhat well. 

With one final wail the monster collapsed in the sea, the impact making my ship wobble and groan. Finally the sea calmed down, the sky once terrifying, now looked not as menacing without the monsters. I watched and waited, not surprised to see a hand come out of the ocean and grab the old, wet, side of the ship. I watched as Clarisse pulled herself up like a zombie out of the ground, except she was more angry looking than dead for a few thousand years. Without a word she plopped herself grumpily down on the dryest part and kicked off a piece of kelp that dangled over it. “Forward”, she growled at me and I made no objections and moved the ship forward. Minutes later I heard snoring and I saw Clarisse sound asleep.


	15. Die Justin Die

I am sorry I haven’t been posting in awhile, I have come down with something (again) and for some reason I can’t write correctly. Then of course my computer hasn’t been working for weeks and the monitor won’t turn on every three days so updates will be slow. I couldn’t even think of an idea for this chapter, but I finally got it and have slowly been inching forward in this. In return I wish to share with you a little secret (when I mean little, I mean it is most likely obvious). I hate Justin Bieber. Some of you may like him, but he was always annoying to me and his songs are just annoying, self absorbed, and autotuned to the height where I mistake him for a new artist I never heard of each time a new song of his comes up on the radio. This is the reason why I prefer Itunes because I won’t bump into one of those songs. Also I heard he is not loyal and plays with girls like they are little toys you buy cheep from the dollar store. In this chapter, the people of this universe will be spared the suffering of this drunken reject of Alvin and the Chipmunks and the Chipettes. I am sorry if I am insulting fangirls who like this guy, but that is how I feel and that is the reason if you are a Belieber (or whatever they are called), do not read this chapter so I won’t get into another Bieber fight for the fourth time.

I watched the waves and the water rolling off the hull of the small ship. With everyone asleep it was a little boring. I missed my brother, the  comforting feeling of having a family member by my side, the strange logic of the giant dragon, and the sound of his voice. Kyrogre was more like a mother to me than a brother a long time ago, but I guess that is how pets think, since I was once considered one.

I don’t see myself as a mindless animal, I was taught not to after my family found out I was Athrodox’s favored. Now I see Mother as my mother and Kyrogre as my brother, but I am not ashamed to say I used to think that. 

The memory of when I was little fresh in my mind, I decided to look back at it, where I was ignorant of the works in the world, not able to speak yet or stay up on land that well. 

It had been dark that night, the lights coming from the capital city of Florida twinkling in the night, blocking out the stars. There was something going on that night and I didn’t like it. People were yelling and screaming while horrible music blared at full volume. Whoever was singing had a really weird voice and sounded awful to my tiny ears. I had just sat on the sand and cried, Kyrogre trying to calm me down with the weird telepathy thing we shared. I absolutely hated the loudness and that voice that kept saying, “Baby, baby, baby”. It made no sense to me at the time why he was hurting my ears and singing about babies.

“Gahh! Could you shut that thing up? It is bad enough we have that”, Mother had said, flicking her tail towards the annoying lights and screaming girls. I had shrieked even louder, pleading wordlessly for it to stop. I never was good with words, even at the age of three I didn’t use them often since I was just around dragons and back then I said nonsense sentences that the dragons excused as just human talk, they didn’t know my words were directed at them or that I understood them when they spoke to me.

“Mother, he doesn’t like the sounds either, it hurts him as much as it hurts me and you”, Kyrogre said back to her. She looked down at me incredulously and I had looked at her with tear filled eyes, momentarily stopping, but then a loud wail of a guitar and a loud “OOOHHH” filled my ears and my head burst out with pain. The two titans heard it too and winced at it. Mother roared with anger.

“I hate that sound, that's it, he is dead”, she roared and thundered over to the crowd of people under a banner that said “Justin Bieber Concert”. I watched in fascination as the screaming of the crowd turned to horror and the singer shut up and gave up one last girly scream when my mother smooshed him like a bug under her tail. Kyrogre picked me up with his mouth, tiny teeth barely touching my soft, bare back and he trotted over to watch the destruction. I had watched my mother roar with fury and slam her tail through the sound system. Girls screamed and ran from her rage, fleeing under her feet, some dumb ones getting crushed like bugs. Police shot at her, but the bullets only bounced off her dark skin, making small ripples. She had roared in anger and kicked most of their cars to the next state in her anger. At all of this destruction I laughed and clapped, sitting on the sand since Kyrogre put me down to watch. It was wonderful to watch all my annoyances get crushed under the giant dragon that I once thought as my other caretaker.

When Mother was done she grumped over to the spot she was before and plopped herself down, tail in the surf. No human was stupid enough to stick around the carnage so the beach was quiet, I was quiet. “Finally, it all stopped”, she sighed, looking rather tired. “You were awesome mother, Percy though it was awesome”, Kyrogre said once I was next to her on the sand again, cold sea water rushing against my bare limbs. “I can’t believe you named him. You are a dragon, naming is a human thing”, Mother growled at her son, who of course was not named yet. “Well he is human and he already had the name”. “Well it is not like he understands us, he will just hear nothing when you say his name, humans are like that, they don’t hear our words”, Mother yelled back at him. “I unstand you”, I had said, trying to say understand, but I haven’t mastered the word at the time. 

The dragons turned towards me with shocked expressions, both wondering if I was talking to them. I had felt a little awkward and just smiled at them and squashed a bunch of sand within my tiny hands. Mother just snorted and looked away, excusing my words as a coincidence, but Kyrogre wasn’t as skeptical. “You can understand me”? He asked, getting up in my face. “I unstand you”, I said again, putting my sandy hands on his nose. For a second we had just stared at each other, him looking curious and me probably with a stupid smile on my face. 

“Mom I think he can really understand us”, the dragon said and bounded over to where his mother’s head lay. “No he can’t darling, he is human I told you that”, she snorted, the sand around her flying skyward. “No he answered me when I spoke. He is never around his kind often and he chatters constantly”. “He is just practicing the words from when he lived with his human mother, most likely the only thing he has to remember her by, also he is around sailors all the time, he probably hears them talking so go to sleep now”.

I had watched my brother sigh and came over to where I giggled in the sand. “I know you can understand me so call me… Brother”. I had heard that through a bunch of sirens so “Brother” turned to “Kyther” so that was what I said. “No no no,  Brother ”, he said pronouncing it better. It still sounded garbled to me, this time turning to “Kyrooogre” from the sirens. “Kyrogre”, I said outloud finally settling on something. The dragon shook his jaw fins and looked into the sky thoughtfully. “Kyrogre huh? I kind of like that. Ok, Kyrogre it is then”. I had giggled and wrapped my arms around his nose and then felt a wave of tiredness fall over me so I had flopped over on my face like usual.

Coming out of that memory, feeling like my brother just snorted on me. It may seem ridiculous to humans, but that was a sign that a loved one was there or watching you for me. It meant they were trying to draw your attention, to have me turn around and hug by bother’s round face like I had done back then. The feeling was so strong that I looked over my shoulder for the first time, he wasn’t there or anywhere nearby. It was just a Nico curled up in a ball, Clarisse slumped backwards, arms crossed and snoring loud enough to rival Mother’s roaring and Annnabeth up and looking out at the sea. Her grey eyes studied the water as if trying to discover every living organism that floated around the surface of the water like the bacteria that eats dragon poop faster than you can say its scientific name.

“You alright”, I asked and she looked up noticing me for the first time on this ship, she must have been lost in memory or something. Her gaze soon became confused as she looked up on higher deck where the steering was, or used to be, now it was just a piece of wood protruding from the deck that used to have rails for keeping the captain from falling overboard. Her eyes widened with panic and her eyes looked over to the sail or what used to be, now the thing was just tatters drifting uselessly in the air, no wind coming to blow them around like streamers. Her eyes then settled to the water where the boat cut through it and waves curled along the hull. 

I smiled as she looked at me, but that was a bad idea. The next thing I knew she tackled me against the floor, bronze knife at my throat. I can tell you this, I have seen plenty of types of metal, things from alluminum to steel and I hadn’t seen that type before. Before I could ask what it was she nudged it at my throat when my mouth open.

“How is this ship moving”, she growled at me. “Easy, the currents do what I say and that is moving the ship. Problem”? Wrong thing to say apparently because she jumped back, knife in front of her, eyes wide with shock. “You are that son of Poseidon”.


	16. Don't mess with Percy the ruby throated bat dragon

Hello again, My computer is finally working again temporarily. This thing never works correctly and the monitor is older than I am so I am hoping I will get enough money someday for a slightly newer one, I wonder if my school still needs those monitors from the computers that were recently replaced with the macs. I will ask and hope to edit sooner than just this and a few words written on my Ipod. Here is your extra long chapter with lots of “fun”.

I blinked at Annabeth, not knowing what she was talking about. I know about Poseidon and the Olympians, well as much as you can get from old sea titans and gossiping eel eaters, long greenish dragons with big mouths and I say this in more ways than one, but I never, ever needed anything to do with them. I never talked about them, never said their names, or even thought about them, why would I have something to do with them. 

“What is going on? I have nothing to do with Poseidon so can you please calm down, Clarisse is sleeping”, I whispered to her seeing the brown haired girl growl and then go back to sleep. I last time someone messed with her since it was just a few hours ago and that was over some cake. I didn’t know what she would do with us if she was woken from her nap. “I don’t care, I need to not be around you, me and Nico need to get out of here and away from you. You and that dragon will get us in big trouble. I mean hunted down mercilessly by the Olympians trouble”. I blinked again, still confused by Annabeth’s words. Why were the Olympians hunting for me, I am associated with the gods of creation and with Athrodox, the gods of destruction. They have no problems with me so why were the unnatural gods hunting me down. 

Before I could stop her, Annabeth ran over and patted Clarisse on the arm and violently shook Nico. The little black haired boy’s surprised groans were wobbly with the way she was shaking him. “Get up Bones for Brains, we need to get off this ship NOW”! Annabeth yelled at Nico’s unfocused face. “Whyyyy. I like it here, it smells like shipwreck, my favorite perfume scent”, Clarisse yawned. I gave the girl a strange look, these people were getting weirder by the second and that was coming out of a kid who has been raised around dragons, crazy dragon gods, and of course mad sailors claiming I was a mermaid. 

“Yeah, is there a monster attack or something? Wait a second, I recognize this ship, the Welber? That sunk when I was eight, but now that was eighty years ago when that thing sunk”, Nico asked running his fingers over the still damp boards. I looked over the prow and saw that it was in fact called the S.S Welber. “Yup, it is”, I answered him.

“Now is not the time for a history lesson about boats, now is the time to leave Nico, this guy will get us in big trouble now let’s get going”. Annabeth grabbed Nico and stopped, clearly figuring out what she was doing wrong. We were right smack in the middle of the ocean on one boat that had no way of moving without me on it. The water seemed to be mocking her, glittering and the wind blowing the sounds of water licking water around us. Every one around just stood there, staring at Annabeth for her next move, everyone seemed to hold their breath for a comical few seconds, absorbing her mistake. She stood there staring in shock, Nico’s hand still in hers, him blinking his brown eyes in confusion. 

“Where is the lifeboat”, Annabeth asked, not moving where she was. “This didn’t come with one, sorry. I will grab the next hundred year old ship with a life boat”, I stated sarcastically, but my words sounded sincere to me.

Annabeth sighed and sat down on the deck, letting Nico go and sulking in a corner. “Take us to the nearest island please”, was all she said. Lucky for her there was an island in the distance, but I could only see it thanks to my eyesight, a gift for my birthday, thanks Athrodox. “There is an island over there”, I pointed casually. “Well what in the name of my mother are you waiting for, steer us there Seaweed Brain”. 

I shrugged and the boat turned sharply towards the island. “Wait a second. Seaweed Brain? What does that have to do with Percy. I would think you would name him dragon breath, or Scale Brains. Where did the seaweed aspect come from ”, Nico asked curiously confused. “He is that son of Poseidon the gods are looking for, he isn’t supposed to exist and he will be put down as soon as they catch him and I don’t want any of you getting in the middle of it now hurry this ship up”, Annabeth yelled at me, grey eyes burning in me like a whip to the slave to work faster. Nico looked at me with complete and utter terror, then it disappeared into pity. I don’t mind pity thankfully. 

“You never told me you were a son of Poseidon”, Nico said with sadness in his eyes. It looked like he knew about what this was and if he dealt with it himself. “That doesn’t mean we leave him to die alone. He has saved our lives right now and then he went and got us a boat to travel on. Bianca didn’t even do that and look at the way she acts around me”. “This is different, Nico. This kid, if we stay with him, we will all become endangered. You and Bianca were in the same situation, you both were wanted dead, now he and he alone is wanted gone. I won’t let him drag all of us into this”, Annabeth yelled. 

I of course had no idea what was going on, I never caused much trouble and I was no “son of Poseidon” I am just another human in this world and I am not loyal to the Olympians or their problems. “Why are the Olympians hunting me”? I asked.

Everyone turned around and stared at me, surprised. “Well...Uh...The Olympians...They are alive”, Clarisse stuttered stupidly. “I am aware of that, I may not know certain things, but I know of every deity, what they do, how they were created, their secret names, ways to destroy them, and if they are awake, asleep, or dead. I don’t need a lecture on how they exist, now why are they hunting me”?

The people in front of me gaped and looked between each other. Nico was the first one to calm down and look me in the eye with less shock than the others. “Earlier this year the big three had their weapons of power stolen from them while they called a council. They all blame each other for the weapons, Zeus blames Poseidon and Hades for stealing his, Poseidon blames Hades, Hades blames Zeus for both killing my mother and stealing his weapon bla bla bla. So now they learned that five children of the big three were born so they put the blame on us”. “Because of that ridiculous pact they made that wasn’t going to last any longer anyways”, I added in. “Yeah so one of them, Thalia, died a long time ago so the gods went out and began questioning the children and making them try and find the weapons minus her. The only one of the children the gods didn’t know of is the son of Poseidon, you, and now they are hunting for you”. I looked into the distance and thought I saw some type of war submarine in the distance, most likely my now steady guard. “I guess that makes sense, but they still have no control over me. They can hunt me forever, but they can’t touch me without starting a war”. “A war? With who”? Nico asked. “You don’t want to know”.

“Finally we are here”, Annabeth squealed and pretty much jumped out of the boat before it was parked at the dock. All around us boats and submarines floated everywhere, all intact as if just coming in for trading, but no one milled about them. They ranged from a pirate ship to planes and even some type of UFO. I could see a submarine, a passenger airplane, some war camels, an oil tanker, a few fishing boats, even a greek trireme as new as if it was model from the museum The island looked like a huge dome of tropical trees and bushes, but they didn’t seem natural the way they were. Standing on the edge of the dock, in front of a mossy stone archway to inside the dome, was a fairly pretty lady.

She wore a white gown and her hair was a dark brown with streaks of gold. She reminded me of some dumb blonde girls at the beach I went to in California with her carefree smile. Yeah those girls thought my mother was a rock and began climbing on her with their drunk boyfriends, you most likely knew what happened to them and the cabins around them.

“Hello young ones I am Hilla Coming in for a spa treatment”? Annabeth opened her mouth to answer, but the lady cut her off. “Of course you are dears names please”, she pulled out a clipboard behind her back. “This is Clarisse and Nico and I’m Annabeth, but we don’t need…” “Oh, but what about him, he has to come to”, the lady pointed to me. I didn’t do anything, but got ready to take off again in the tiny ship to look for my brother since I was not needed. I didn’t get to do much before she grabbed my arm in a grip that I swore cut my circulation off. “Well tell me your name little one”, she whispered in my ear. Now she was holding me up in the air by my arm, and I am pretty heavy. “Percy”, I said and her smile widened. “That’s a good boy, now come on you three”. She began walking, Slinging me over her shoulder like a bag of flour. It hurt, but I didn’t attack, she was too nice and something was messing with my head. 

I was carried down a corridor made of stone and vegetation, the roof letting sunlight through to light the way. Hilla had no problem carrying me and when I tried to struggle she just grabbed the back of my neck hard enough to break it. “No wiggling Percy”, she reminded me and I just slumped against her, somehow obeying her commands. My mind was getting fuzzy and I could only smell flowers and perfume. I didn’t even notice my hearing lessening to I could hear every drip in the island to barely hearing the footsteps of Hilla. I felt completely relaxed and there was something biting me in the back of my mind to get out of there, but it disappeared in the fog.

Before my brain was catching up to what was going on we emerged into a domed room filled with girls in pretty dresses relaxing, getting massages. In the center of the room was a pool and a fountain made of some white stuff and blurry shapes. Wow, even my vision was screwed up. I could only see a few feet in front of me, but my mind didn’t panic and fight it. 

“Hello CC, I brought more customers for us, two girls and two boys”, Hilla said and patted my back while I was trying to look at the girl in front of me. CC or what’s her name was fuzzier than the rest of them, I only saw a blurry human figure in front of me and everything around her was fuzzy. “Wonderful Hilla, thank you. You two girls, Annabeth Chase and Clarisse LaRoo, you will follow these three lovely ladies and get first class treatment. “But…” Annabeth wanted to say, but she was lead off anyway. 

“Percy, you will go with these lovely ladies to get a little bit of a makeover”, the blur said and two women, also blurry, but not as came up and took me from Hilla. Just like her they carried me, but they had more trouble with my weight. “As for you Nico...eh...You need a makeover for...All of you”. “Ok Mrs. CC”, Nico said sadly, but I didn’t detect the worry. 

I was dragged down the hallway to a room that looked completely blurry and a fire blazed, sending perfume everywhere. My eyes were beginning to burn from all of it. “Now easy Percy, can you see the mirror in front of you”, asked a voice that sounded like it was coming from the bottom of the ocean or something. “NO”! I yelled, trying to hear myself, but it sounded like a whisper. “Too much perfume”, one of them said. “No, this will keep him mellow, I don’t want to know what he will do if it is lessened, a little less after the transformation and he will try to escape”. Curse my fogged up brain, instincts were trying to kick in, but there was just too much. “Now now Percy, no struggling now, drink this, it will help you”, a voice purred in my mind. 

Something was poured down my throat, something cool and tasty. Suddenly my guts burned and I felt like I was shrinking. The next thing I knew I was suffocating and my senses grew a little sharper. All I could smell was smoke and it seemed like my mind was coming back. I was inside some material, but now was burning a hole though it. “Uh oh, did we do something wrong”, a slightly squeaky voice said above me. It sounded panicked and clearer. “I think we killed him”, another said, I could hear nervous shuffling. “He isn’t dead he is right here”, one said and grabbed me from outside the material. “But he is too small to be a guinea pig”, one said again, the one with a squeaky voice. “I don’t know why he is tiny and bony, he feels like a little bat, I can feel wings”. I struggled, my chest warm and only smoke filled my senses, every breath of air a blazing hot burst singing the fabric. 

I breathed harder and harder until orange flames shot all around me, burning away the fabric. The women yelped and dropped everything including me. Then I plummeted, falling towards the ground, the wooden floor, but I spread teel wings and soared up and onto a glass, my small claws scratching against the smooth surface. Looking down at myself, I suddenly had short back legs with tiny birdlike claws and my arms were wings with only a thumb remaining for walking on. I had a delicate, shiny red underbelly and the rest of me was a glittering teel. 

I could see the ladies now, all blonde and in white dresses in a small, or big for me, room made out of stone, a fire cooking in the center. Around me it looked like a bar with only one table and an empty window. I was standing on what looked like strawberry smoothie.

The girls stared at me in shock and horror. They had turned me into the smallest dragon in the world, now they would pay for it. I screeched, teeth inside my head popping out like an endless row of snake fangs. They screamed and ran as I leaped in the air and blasted a massive column of flame at them. My tiny wings didn’t allow me to go fast, but I tried. The next thing I knew I was in a pool room that was shrouded in magic. I could see everything clearly now, every single fly and hotspot for magic in all the places that were blurred earlier clear as crystal and I knew why the perfume made the surroundings blurry, it disguised the magic that swarmed this place and what the things really were. The one thing that got my attention was a cage full of guinea pigs, but they weren’t guinea pigs. For me there was a shadow of a bunch of pirates, one with a long black beard and they all looked down at a black guinea pig whose shadow was...Nico. 

I roared in fury, bringing everyone’s attention to me, the tiny green dot in the sky. I folded my wings as far as I could and headfirst plummeted down to the water of the pool. Before I could go plop like a pebble in it I spread my wings and each beat grazed the water. I spat out a jet of flame at the women in the pool and set the entire thing on fire. The fact that the water was filled with oils from the women’s skin made the pool light up with fire and sent magic women screaming. 

After I was done terrorizing the pool, I set the rest of the room on fire, the perfume in the air making the columns grow to an impossibly large size for such a tiny dragon. Don’t underestimate the small dragons, they have a lot of fire. 

I could see from where I hovered a black guinea pig was looking amazed at me though the cage and destruction and chaos. Fires burned all around on towels, mud baths, supplies, and a bar. People ran around hysterically and screamed, some of the ladies had their hair on fire or dresses. It was complete and utter chaos and it was caused by a tiny dragon hovering in the sky. 

When I was content with my work I flew down to Nico’s cage and couldn’t stop in time to not run into it. The momentum sent the cage back and it clattered to the ground sending the pirates sprawling. The door had bent open and Nico climbed out to look at my dragon form. He looked like a bear compared to me, on the ground where I was flat on my back and trying to get up. One of my wings ached and my tiny claws curled up like an owl’s when it died. The black guinea pig sniffed me and began walking on my chest to get a better look at my face. I could see the smoke rising out of my nostrils and coughed a bit of flame as he stood on me. Wow, this guy was heavy as a guinea pig. My breathing became hard and the smoke came out in more vast ways trying to breath through what seemed like a hundred pounds of guinea pig.

I didn’t expect the creature to lick my face though, soft tiny tongue licking the scales by my eyes and tiny holes in my head as an excuse for ears. I couldn’t help relaxing and taking it as affectionate gesture.

I couldn’t let it happen long because a scream echoed around the room behind Nico and above me. It was Annabeth looking in horror at the sight Clarisse looking in awe and a girl next to it as horrified as Annabeth. They all had a new braided hairdo with gold strands. The girl looked like Hilla, but younger. “What happened here”? Annabeth yelled in anger. Nico ran over and grabbed his black shirt from underneath a table, then dragged it to Annabeth as if pleading for help and showing he was a guinea pig. The girls noticed and stared at Nico in shock and complete and utter confusion. “Is that Nico”, Clarisse asked and Nico squeaked and huddled in a circle looking rather cute, but agitated. “If Nico is a guinea pig then where is Percy.

I tried to get up, but my wing, bent to an odd angle and I fell over on my side with a crunch and a squawk. It hurt worse than anything before. Nico noticed me and ran over, rolling me over onto my red underbelly with his nose. The girl’s eyes widened with shock and Annabeth looked at me with closer inspection and began backing away, fearful. Clarisse on the other hand wrapped her hand around my tiny body and picked me up, but let my wing hang limp. 

“I think this dragon is Percy, Annabeth”, Clarisse stated, stroking the retractable ridge on my back. “He He, he is kind of cute this way. Watch this, I can stick him in my pocket”. She did exactly that and I was not as crushed as i suspected, but there was some extra gum in there along with a very sharp paperclip. “He tickles”, she laughed as I moved inside the jacket pocket. 

“C-Clarisse be careful, that thing can bite and kill instantly”, Annabeth said with a shaky voice. “No he can’t. Especially since he is at my mercy and I can crush him like a bug right where he lay”, Clarisse said and poked me so I would wriggle in her pocket like lizard. I had to say it was nice since it was warm inside. “I will get Nico and make him eat these multivitamins that I got from Luke as a birthday present long ago. Eat this Nico”. I heard a squeak and then heard Nico’s voice. “That is awesome, but where is Percy”? Clarisse stuck her hands in her pockets and pinched my mouth shut. “I don’t know, come on let’s get going now. Oh and Annabeth, you dropped some vitamins “, Clarisse said. “Doesn’t matter, let’s get out of here before the roof collapses”. “But what about Percy”, I heard Nico wine. “He is fine, now would you hurry up”.

I didn’t care that I was stuck in a pocket, I just knew it was warm and I was tired.


	17. Dragon of Torture, he lives

_ Hello everyone, busy few days I tell you and I just want to wish you a happy holidays. I know there are other things happening at this time for different cultures and religions, but some people don’t celebrate the certain ones I know of since I only know the things that surround me and my small world of books made by people of no particular religion (religious books are a pain in the tail for me). Anyway, that message there and a happy new year (unless your culture doesn’t do new years yet)  _

“You told me Percy was here now where is he”, I heard Nico scream. That got me awake, but by the sound of it he had been screaming for a while now. I was still in Clarisse’s pocket, her hand was in it and making sure I was still, one finger pinned my head and mostly my mouth, another pinned one of my wings, the other was tied to me with wire, and few other fingers ran over my back and tail. A perfect system it seemed since I couldn’t move. It was warm in there and that made me lazy, I guess this is what it was like for a dragon.

I guessed this was what it was like for sea titans when they swam to the Hawaiian islands for the breeding season. It happened every three years and it was where all the titans in the world would migrate over to “mingle”. For the males they get to pass on their next generation and the females always got pregnant, even with another baby dragon following it around. Sometimes they keep the other children if they have any, but sometimes they chase the children off where they would die of starvation or hunted. There are places that still hunt the titans even if they are pretty much going extinct. 

Other female titans keep their children and turn into a large family that sometimes helps her out with things or else they will all be abandoned. Most of the titans prefer this method since it involves bringing their species back on top.

Mother on the other hand doesn’t use either of these methods. She uses the “you touch me I smack you with my tail” method. It works pretty well, but she almost smashed a few hotels. I always found it unusual that she didn’t destroy anything or kill the male titans that came after her, now I know why, she was too calmed to. I am just hoping Hawaii is where she is now and she won’t want to leave till we find her. 

“Nico he will be fine, relax ok. He isn’t gone forever, he is just doing something with dragons right now. He will catch up don’t worry”, Annabeth pleaded. “Is that what you wanted Annabeth? Huh? You have always wanted Tyson gone ever since he arrived at camp, then there was Beeping. She was a great friend and you wanted to get rid of her”, I could hear Nico choking up, but I couldn’t move to get to him and stop his crying. “And Percy, he is the most amazing person I ever met, he was kind, smart, and actually believed me unlike anyone in the entire camp. No the entire world. Now you get rid of him too, he is probably still a dragon and being tortured by those pirates you set loose”. “Nico, pirates wouldn’t torture dragons, they ignore tiny red bellied vampires like what he turned into. Percy. Is. Fine”, Annabeth argued. “More of your so called “logic”, I am sick of it. All you do is tell people what is right and what is wrong all day, all you do is make people sad and feel stupid. You make me feel stupid. Not only that, but just because you don’t like dragons doesn’t mean everyone around you is supposed to not like dragons. You are so mean all the time and grumpy too. I just want to be alone”, Nico wailed and I could hear him run off somewhere. The ground sounded like metal.

“That must hurt”, Clarisse said to break the silence that fell over them. “A little, but no matter, I am what is best for Nico. I will prove that to him. That boy ,Percy, he keeps ranting about is not good for him. I will prove that. Remember our plan Clarisse, pretty soon Nico will be on his knees thanking me and begging for forgiveness”, Annabeth said in a cool tone. “Are you sure it will work though? My father can be unpredictable, even for a daughter of Athena. What if he takes Percy back to Olympus with him? Nico would hate you forever if that happens and you can’t get the thing back”.

“Easy, it will be a way to get Nico’s little friend cleared forever. I will pretend to do what I can to make things right, confess a bunch of soppy feelings and I know how he hates saying ‘no’. It will be simple and easy, our only problem with it is the real Percy. If he gets it the way the plan is doomed”. Annabeth sounded like she was pondering what to do. Most likely if I interfered, maybe she would try to kill me, feed me to monsters that weren’t flying reptiles, or maybe she would try and make her mother, Athena, do something to me. 

Again, dragons are the most reliable source of gossip and they knew everything. I heard you don’t piss off Athena’s daughters, Athena herself will sacrifice everything to make them happy, even the safety of herself. Most would call it loyalty, but really it is cockyness, she thinks she can defeat anything and make that certain by not letting her lines be pushed around. I expect her to be smart and ignore Annabeth when it comes to me, I have a few ties and unless she wants to mess with my brothers, the dragons of chaos, and they like to use a lot of lightning, so many volts it would make Zeus beg for mercy. 

Suddenly the pocket jarred and I felt Clarisse’s muscles move under me, fabric dragging against fabric. She let me go so I could wriggle around the pocket and relax and curl up in a comfortable ball or something. I refused to let the warmth take me into sleep again, she knew I was awake and I understood what was going on. She made it obvious by making me not move, she was planning something that even a daughter of Athena couldn’t see.

Suddenly her huge hand grabbed me by the midsection and brought me out into the cold air. My eyes adjusted to see we were in the cabin of some type of metal ship, I could see the water outside the metal window and her bunk, a large one meant for a general or something. On the wall hung weapons for war from a long time ago, maybe World War Two, I remember another sunken ship from that time period with a cabin just like this. She then set me down on a wooden desk with a lamp and map with war plans. 

“Big room isn’t little buddy”, she said, looking up at the ceiling and around her. I sat back, folded my wings, and stared at her. I knew ruby throated vampire dragons have beady little black eyes like beads that are extremely questioning and maybe even cute if they made the right face. Clarisse looked down at me and stared right back.

“What”, she said. A smile appeared on her face and she began sniffling, trying not to laugh outloud. “What”? It was getting hard for her now. She was now cracking up gasping the word “What do you want”. Yup I made the right face, some people go aww, some do this in the terrifying gaze of the tiny dragons from Brazil. 

“Alright alright, I will tell you what I am planning, just stop looking at me like that ok”. Satisfied, I scrunched up and curled up to a smaller size, but that failed thanks to my bandaged wing so I sprawled out on the desk, kicking my legs in the air as a desperate attempt to get up. “I think I like you as a dragon, you are so ridiculous and funny. I squawked at her and began flapping around uselessly. “Uh oh, language. You better watch your tongue little thing or I will squash you like the grape you are”. I stopped and gave up, so what if the blood rushed to my head, I will just die, no big deal, ignore the upsidedown, useless little dragon dying on the desk. 

Clarisse picked me up and turned me over thankfully before telling me her plan. “So you heard Annabeth, she has this plan to get Nico to like her. We are planning to give you to my father this way so he thinks hunting for you will be a lost cause, leave you here, return to Olympus and save you a bit of time to do whatever you want, escape, help us, etcetera. It is a good plan, hard to beat, but Annabeth can’t win at everything all the time because she is smart. She always thinks other campers should listen to her wisdom even though some of us have been through worse than she has. I am going to prove she isn’t all that and can get whatever she wants. She has already screwed me over with Chris and I don’t want Nico and you to get the same treatment. You with me”?

I gave a squawk of approval and flapped one of my wings. “So you're in, I am guessing you have a plan already or do I need to make one for you”? I shook my head and puffed up my chest, making the fairly spiky red scales rattle and stand up like an inside out geode. “Good now here is what will happen”.

 

The next morning I sat in Clarisse’s pocket and remained as still as I could be. I heard some whispering between Clarisse and Annabeth, that act she was putting up was great, I would have sniggered behind her back and most likely would have gotten caught. 

I took a little nap until there was a huge splash and a big, booming laugh that echoed around us. “Hello everybody”, a deep voice said, he sounded like one of those wrestling announcements, the beaches down in New Mexico host some crazy shows on Fridays. “Dad...Hey what are you doing here”, Clarisse said in surprise. “Oh to visit my little girl he he. And to get the son of Poseidon that has been traveling around with you guys, Zeus sees him as a threat and wants to eliminate him so can you direct me to him”, The voice asked. “Oh, well not to anger you father, but here he is”. Clarisse took me out of her pocket and stuck me in someone’s hands. 

I yawned and looked up into the face of a mean biker dude that would make most small children wet their pants and people who don’t want to die run away. First of all, his face was covered in scars and he wore this biker helmet with a mohawk made out of miniature shot guns instead of spikes. He wore a big black leather jacket with spikes on the shoulders and a shirt that had those “letters” on them again so I didn’t know what it said. Usually I would be angry and want to try and beat this guy up, but right at that second, I was a tiny little dragon with bones that were as fragile as noodles so the only instincts that came to me were run, run, run. Evil scary human coming to chop down the forest and kill you, run, run, run.

Suddenly he burst out laughing, making me jump in surprise and almost slide off his palm. “This is the all powerful son of Poseidon Barnacle Beard was talking about. Look at him, he’s a pipsqueak like this. Watch this”, He picked me up by a ridge of spikes kind of like a scruff and wiggled me around. “Ha ha, this is hilarious. This little twerp is what we were looking for? If I knew he was this than I would have just stayed back in Olympus. Ha ha, Apollo is going to get a kick out of him”. 

I could hear a deep growl around and the sea began to darken and waves began to appear on the side of the battleship, I even thought I saw the spine of a red and gold serpent. Annabeth definitely noticed this and the storm filled with red lightning coming toward us. “Ares, sir, please be careful, he is delicate “. 

Then Nico appeared on deck and saw what was going on. His eyes widened and so did Annabeth’s looks like something in her plan went wrong. “Don’t touch him”, Nico yelled and a shadow grabbed me out of the air. Only my head stuck out of a hand that somehow belonged to Nico. “Aw, the son of Hades is keeping a pet isn’t he? How cute”. “Stop picking on Percy, Ares. He is my friend so leave him alone”, Nico yelled. I was thankful for him, he wasn’t as scary for a small dragon ment for flying away from predators. 

“Yeah don’t touch him or my brother will destroy most of the Olympians, the rest I will torture forever”, a hoarse voice said from behind everyone. Everyone turned around, Ares more fearful than anyone else. 

In the light of the remaining sun coming through the storm sat a medium sized dragon. He didn't’ look like much except his scales looked like they were made out of bloody knives. His underbelly was splintered like old wood and he had a huge ridge of spikes, swords, and torture blades. His tail split into nine whip like tails, each with a different weapon from every era that would cause the most pain for humans or animals. The dragon’s eyes, they looked like they were covered in scratches, but when you look deep into them you would most likely hear the screams of victims seen long ago.

I knew this dragon, he was one of Athrodox’s biological children, the dragons of chaos, this one was the dragon of torture. “Haratax, forgive me I-I didn’t know he was with you sir”, Ares begged looking absolutely terrified. “Ares, you are lucky my brothers aren’t here, but unlike Percy at the second, I can call the rest”. “No-no-no need for that sir, I wasn’t going to do anything to the tike. Look perfectly fine, see”. The dragon examined the image around them and growled, “Fine, my mother says you will get a second chance, but you are lucky, I am not merciful unlike her. Neither of us are”. Then he disappeared.

“Yeah I should probably go to. Bye honey”, then he disappeared in a flash. 

“Annabeth, what is going on? You were handing Percy over to Ares, why”? Nico asked with a betrayed pout. Annabeth stood there and sputtered, completely shocked by the arrival of something that would scare the cockiest Olympian into begging. 

“That doesn’t matter right now, now we get Percy back to his original form, here”. She put one of the gummies that Nico took in his palm. “Wait Clarisse, what about the plan”? “What plan? There was the one where we make Percy normal again or did you want to just hand him over to Ares”, Clarisse said. Nico looked over and glared at Annabeth, then held out the gummy. I of course only had one wing to handle it with so I just skewered it with the tip of my wing and ate it.

The next thing I knew I was sitting on the deck in the jeans I wore last time, human, and in one piece thankfully. 

“Percy”, Nico said happily and encased me in a hug. “Hey Nico, I can’t thank you all enough, without you I would still be a dragon and Mother would mistake me for a snack if I came up to her”. Clarisse narrowed her eyes, “Your mother eats dragons”? “Well some, if they get in her way so yes, but right now that doesn’t matter”. 

“Yeah, especially with what is up ahead”, Annabeth called out from a higher deck. Everyone got up and ran over to look at what lay beyond. What we saw was not a sight that would have been good. It was a layer of reddish fog that covered the voices of something evil and that would bring any person even with a fear of heights to their doom. “There it is, the island of the sirens”. 


	18. Nightmares in Annabeth

_ I’m back and ready for action. I took a big break from writing since I am having a writer’s block the past week. During that time I watched a few animes to give me ideas, but then as a fangirl. I wanted to go out there and write fanfictions that I have no ideas or order for. Now I am going to try and focus on one right now and tie my ADHD brain to the document until it is done. Maybe a perspective on Annabeth will change, tell me if it does tell me and if it doesn’t, well tell me anyway. I would like to know if I am doing the character perspective change right, some writers do it wrong since they already know a hated character’s background, I mean they made the entire person. _

I blinked and circled my jaw, trying to disconnect Annabeth’s foot from my face. Clarisse was somewhat laying on top of the blonde unconscious while Nico had the other leg, curled in it to weigh her down. I could see him trying to yell something, but thanks to the wax in my ears, I couldn’t hear what he was saying. Annabeth’s mouth hung open from the injury she aquired by ramming her head into Clarisse’s that knocked the daughter of Ares into unconsciousness. It sounded like there was sound coming out, but again, can’t hear. Her head whipped around to Nico and me, me with fear in her eyes and Nico with pure hatred. She struggled more with me, kicking and screaming, trying to get me off of her eyes full of fear.

Her grey eyes were glazed like a mirror, but they weren’t reflecting my image, they were reflecting something else. I could see a park, lots of trees and grass green as the fresh, soft buds that sprouted in California during winter. The trees were all different shades of cherry tree blossoms from white to pink and even purple with tints of blue. Behind it stood what somewhat looked like New York City, but the buildings were more stable, more beautiful, and I bet better for the environment. It looked like a paradise for a person like Annabeth. It all was beautiful, but there was one thing that stood out in the image, a piece of void? The only light coming from it was the eyes which looked like they were made out of a portal to another universe, dark, drawing and mysterious. No, it took the shape of someone I only saw once in my entire life, one of the dragons of destruction, one I met only when Athrodox forced all of her children to attend one of my birthdays. It was Nightmare, the dragon who named his own element after himself and haunts through it.

Annabeth turned away for a second then looked at me again and I could see the dark dragon unfurling his wings and spreading the crescent shaped darkness to something that looked like a hug. I could see the dragon’s teeth, bright white and it widened to the end of his face. He looked like he wanted to swallow everyone up, mostly Annabeth, but she was trying to get to him at all costs.

Finally we were back in open ocean, the red tinged fog cloud behind us as if held back by a barrier. The rest was just clear blue skies and still water. Ahead lay an island full of luscious plant life and healthy flowers. Percy could smell the fresh grass from the boat and that would usually be out of his nose’s range. He could only see the huge green mountain and different colored trees on the island.

Percy was so distracted he didn’t realize Annabeth stopped struggling and Nico was tugging his arm. He turned to see the boy motioning to his ears and moving his mouth as if saying, “it is safe”. I guessed that meant take the wax out so I did.

“Can you hear me Percy”, Nico asked as soon as they were out. “Yeah, is there something you need”. “Yes, um, can you help me take Clarisse to her bunk, I can’t do it by myself”. Nico scratched the back of his head and I swore I could see his cheeks turn a little pink underneath all of his hair. 

I just shrugged and got Clarisse’s shoulders while Nico got her legs and we waddled through the ship till she was on the bed, snoring louder than Athrodox’s roar. Then we went back up to the deck talking about what Annabeth did to us. Most of my teeth hurt and I felt a bruise on my head that felt like it was bleeding. Nico had a split lip and a bruise on his upper jaw, but smiling like the bright sun. Then it turned into a confused look. “Percy, what are you doing”? I jumped a little bit, I never noticed my hand wiping off the blood till that second. “S-sorry, I-I just wanted to help that’s all”, I said jumping back. I couldn’t believe I did that, it hadn’t happened since I was small and tried to rearrange the coral reefs to  make them strait. Athrodox said it was natural and called it being OCD, everyone does it including her even though she is the god of destruction.

“It’s ok, you don’t need to freak out about it, just curious why. No big deal”, Nico said. The air seemed to get awkward around us, I shifted trying to shake it off, but the tension grew. Nico decided to look somewhere else in the same attempt to stop it. We both didn’t know what to say until we heard soft crying from somewhere outside. The only one outside was Annabeth and she didn’t look like the crying type. 

Nico looked like he couldn’t believe it when we ran into the blonde girl, curled up, head in her knees, sobbing her eyes out. She looked weak and knowing Nightmare he would have swallowed her whole and taken her soul if she did this in front of him. Why would Nightmare been in her greatest wishes, he scared me more than the dragon of death when I was young, and he was a walking skeleton filled with darkness and blue fire.

Nico, being the caring friend he was, walked over and tried to talk to her. It didn’t seem to be working and she cried harder, blubbering about something, “I-I-I thought I s-saw him”. “Who? Who did you see”, Nico asked. I knew the answer, “The brother of the creature you saw with Ares, Nightmare, dragon of terror in other side of eyes. That is his full name if you didn’t know”. “Who? I never heard of him. Is he an Olympian gods”. “Nico y-you are such an i-idiot”, Annabeth sobbed, “The Dragons of Destruction, he is one of them. Even though he is considered evil and tears apart the weak, he was the closest thing to a father I had”. Annabeth drew in a shaky breath and wiped her eyes. Nico looked completely shocked.

We both waited for her to continue and she seemed to take the hint for she yelled at us. “Fine, I will tell you about it. My birth father never wanted me, he tried to give me back to Olympus when I was a baby. Then he married some lady and they put me in foster care, I know, he came and had visited me when my half brothers were born. He raised them, he didn’t just send them off to live in a stinky barn with people who treated me like I was a monster to throw stuff at in a zoo, trapped, unable to stay free until you are thrown back in. Not only that, but I was terrified of dragons, they kept me awake with their scratching and growling, as if they would someday pop up and tear me apart if I slept too soundly. Finally Nightmare, the great shadow saw weakness in my abusive guardian and destroyed her. I was forever grateful and I then did whatever he wanted me to in the name of my future. He gave me power in my mind and taught me to ignore those who make fun of me and be able to defend against people who hurt me. He taught me to turn my fear of dragons into hate. He was the first creature to care about me, then he disappeared. He didn’t come back for a long time and then I ran into Thalia and Luke, then we traveled around until Grover, then camp. I wish I could just see him again, to feel close to him, to hear his wisdom again and to not feel alone in a void”.

Someone with a fear of dragons, that’s normal, dragons can be terrifying and people hating them, totally. This was the first time I heard of turning fear to hate, but I can see how it made things bearable. It is hard, but not impossible, the problem is you don’t use it on everything or the fears that protect you or hate will consume you. It means you are so weak you fear everything and that is what Nightmare loves to eat.

“Annabeth, I know Nightmare is gone, but let me tell you this. Becoming over obsessed makes you weak”, I said. Her eyes widened with fear and then turned back to their brave and defiant look. She nodded and walked off, most likely going to rethink everything she was doing, she wouldn’t be seen weak again, she would not disappoint her master. She would not be afraid.


	19. The ship goes down

_ Hey everyone. I want to thank you for the reviews, I like to know how you feel about this and putting the image that I see perfectly in my stories. Again, Thank you. _

Before I knew what was happening, I was being dragged into the lower deck by Nico. I couldn’t read his expression, but I hope he wasn’t angry. Then, when we were out of hearing, Nico got down to his knees, clasped his hands, looked me in the eye and begged. “Please, please, please, please tell me who Nightmare is. Whenever I don’t know something Annabeth knows it makes me feel pathetic and I can’t ask her about it so who is he? What is he”? 

“You don’t need to beg for my answer, only a few people know he exists or what he is. Have you ever heard of the god of destruction, mother of anything with scales”? Nico thought long and hard, “There is a destruction titan I heard about and maybe the great snake of Egypt, but Egyptian mythology can’t be real. Can it”? “It is, along with every other religion because your imaginations make it real, but the original creators are up there and to match creation you need destruction and that is Athrodox, they ruled before humans, one even created the entire solar system. There is a lot of complicated stuff in their story so I will just explain that in the part. Athrodox had seven little babies that make up a group called the Dragons of Destruction, they make sure there isn’t too much creation and too much destruction, got it”? Nico nodded, now sitting criss cross on the floor looking up at me with his big brown eyes.

“Nightmare is one of those seven he technically stalks the dream realm and tests to see if you are weak or not, that is why certain babies die in their sleep, he knows which ones would die if they tried to survive in life and knows which will at least live over the age of five, he also preys on the people that become weak like certain people on drugs or someone who can’t get food. He tests you based on your dreams, he visits you as something scarier than your worst fear, but I don’t really know how he knows you pass. A long time ago he told someone to call the dreams “nightmares” after himself. He isn’t very merciful so watch out, but I am surprised he raised Annabeth, he isn’t the fatherly type and I can kind of see some of his ways in her. ‘With the right plan you can get what you want’ that is his motto”. 

Nico’s eyes widened at this realization at how Nightmare’s motto sounded a lot like Annabeth’s logic. “So does that mean Annabeth is evil like him”, Nico asked. “No, he isn’t evil it is just his job. Nothing is pure evil Nico, not anyone. If something was pure evil it would set off the balance, everyone has a soft spot even Luke, he is doing what he is doing either based on perspective or doing it for someone or something. Annabeth plans to get what she needs or wants. It isn’t wrong, but she’d better be careful on how she uses her brain power. People can go too far”.

“Wait a second, so when I have those dreams where a giant evil Bianca chases me, that is actually Nightmare”, Nico asked. Oh I really wanted to say, “What are you talking about, Bianca is already evil”, but I don’t think that will do any good. “Yes, I guess that is him”.

“Percy, if Nightmare comes to everyone then what did he come as to you”, Nico asked. I thought that over, I have crazy nightmares, mostly about stuff that sometimes happens like the one about Nico, usually they warn me about storms, fishermen, whalers and sometimes things that would try and kill me. The worst nightmares I had were about him and him trying to eat me. They usually took place in a dark room and I was usually in what I use to wear before the pants. In the dreams he shrunk my family and threatened to turn them into humans and I got so upset about that when I was a little kid. 

“He just showed up as himself, a big void colored dragon with pterodactyl shaped wings, colorful eyes and white teeth. He was pretty scary to me when I was little”. “Oh. Ok then”, Nico said and then averted his eyes. “I guess we are done”, I said and began to walk away, but someone grabbed my hand.

I turned around to see Nico, realizing he grabbed my hand, turned a tropical shade of red. “Oh-uh-he-um...eh”, he chatted. He seemed too distracted to put his words in order. I was a little red too, I don’t have many humans touching me, usually unless they were pulling a prank or just didn’t see me standing there on the beach, that part is usually kids, but that doesn’t matter right now. Nico let go and hid his hand like it was burnt or something before finally uttering a sentence.

“What was it… like to grow up...like you did”, He stuttered shifting uncomfortably. “It was fun, I don’t really know much about the land though, just what the dragons spread around. We usually sleep on beaches or don’t sleep at all, but mom mostly destroys them when she gets angry”. Nico winced, “wow, your mother is scary, I am not too excited to meet her.

I tried to imagine Mother and Nico meeting. What came up was Nico looking at my mother in terror and my mother looking down at him and seeing a weak little morsel she wasn’t allowed to eat. Athrodox would squeal and squish his face, call him cute and try to take a family photo, Haratax would sit there calculate on how to make him scream. Nightmare on the other hand would just give the kid nightmares along with my other family members. They make my mom look like the ruby throated bat dragon in size and intensity.

“So what about your parents, what are they like”? I asked Nico. He blushed and looked at the floor awkwardly for a second. “They...um...My mother is dead and my father is Hades...I don’t remember my mom and Hades...Well he isn’t the best father, but he gives me a place to stay at times if I need it. Mostly he just sends me to boarding schools until the summer, then I go to camp and train until next fall, then it is back to school”. “Strange cycle, and I thought our migration routine was boring and tiring. Don’t you at least get a day off to sleep all day or something”, I asked. Nico laughed, “Yeah we have days off, but I don’t spend it sleeping. I do things with Grover or with Tyson like going out to lunch or walking in the plaza. Do you just spend your free afternoons sleeping”. 

“Sometimes after long trips, yes, other times when I am perfectly fine, no, sometimes I sit at the beach or explore the towns if my brother is sleeping. Sometimes I hang out with Amakoto, Kyrogre’s father and I guess my adopted one”. “Do dragons have given names like we do”? Nico asked. “No, I sometimes give them names like Ky and Amakoto, but Mother doesn’t really want one, she thinks it is a human thing and she is a proper dragon who just has her children call her Mother. She likes to be connected to her ancestors that way”. 

Just then the boat lurched forward, causing me to topple over and fall on my butt. Nico, already sitting fell over and hit his head on the floor, making him curl up and groan in pain. I yelled for him, but I almost bit my tongue off when the boat lurched the other direction. Nico screamed as he was flung down the hallway toward a row of weapons piled up as trophies on the wall. He desperately grabbed onto one of the cabin doors and hung there, trying not to slide into the pile of swords and rifles with blades on the tips. I slowly tried to edge myself closer and get him out of there, but the floor, now slippery with water, was hard to deal with. 

Suddenly it lurched again another direction, sending Nico flying into a wall. I was thrown into another cabin and ran into a window which showed an island outside, lush, green, and colorful. The thing that ruined the image was a giant creature on the beach with big hands. It jumped up and down then picked up a huge boulder and sent it straight at us. I felt the impact of the rock that made the ship lurch once again, sending me away from the window. 

I thought I had a heart attack when I saw Nico being hurtled toward the wall of weapons. With the water on the ground I used it to knock him away so he could grab one of the now empty trophy stands. He thankfully latched on, his knuckles white on the hold he had on it.

The boat groaned and it was balance once more. My arm hurt from being slammed into the ground and there was too many scents flooding the place I couldn’t smell much. The strongest scent was fear and there was only one person in the room other than me producing it. Nico was on the ground, groaning and slightly trying to get up, but he was too exhausted and shocked to do much. Mindful another tremor would come again, I crawled over to him and held him, close, making sure I had a stable object to grab onto and in my case that door frame. The poor kid was shaking and breathing heavily, sweat running down his now sickly pale face. His eyes were wide with terror and he hugged my body as tightly as he could, nails clawing for a shirt hold on my back.

He didn’t even flinch when the speaker turned on and began blaring Clarisse’s urgent, commanding voice. “Everyone on deck, we are being attacked. I repeat, we are being attacked. Someone bring me cake if they have some, this is an emergency and I  _ need _ cake. Hop to it you”.

I carefully stood up, Nico in one arm and the other holding me steady in case of another lurch. Water was now pooling into the hall, drowning out the scent of green rocks, fear, broken metal, and old wet wood. 

When I finally made it on deck Clarisse had her cake and was eating it with gusto while firing harpoons at the shore. The monster on the shore dodged them one by one, picking up a tree and hurtling at us. I ducked in time before one of the loose limbs of the tree were to hit me in the head. Annabeth was also firing harpoons, but making sure to aim at the beast before firing.

“Percy, there you are. Put Nico down for a second please and grab a harpoon”, Clarisse yelled through a mouthful of cake. “There are no harpoons left, you have all the guns and I can’t shoot that far”, I yelled, pointing at the only harpoon guns attached to the ship. These were strong and long ranged, huge arrows able to pierce sea titan hide. Clarisse blinked for a second, absentmindedly shooting off another harpoon that almost hit its target. “Ok well pick up something pointy and poke something with it”, she yelled finally and reloaded the gun, firing and missing by a mile.

The giant, getting tired of playing our games, roared and picked up a rock, chucking it at the ship. It looked tiny from there, but it turned out to be as wide as the ship itself. I could only watch and get Nico away from the rock as it landed in the center of the ship and breaking a whole lot of stuff also breaking the ship in half. Apparently there was some explosive thing reactive to water so something exploded and sent me, Nico, and lots of debris flying. I didn’t stay conscious throughout the trip and passed out in midair.


	20. Titans don't belong in SanFransisco

_ Hey guys how’s it going? School is back on so I am upset, I can’t write fanfictions till 5:30 in the morning or 3:00 in the evening (sniff). Even though school sucks and I don’t have any friends since I am the only fangirl on the entire campus, but I get to learn. While I am at it I think I will stuff some “Percy Jackson Prince of Dragons” facts.  _

_ Fact 1: Beeping the dragons is named after a kitten I have named Beeping. The cat has short shrill meows so I called her Beeping and then this dragon _

_ Fact 2: The Sea Titan model was based off of what my friend Kevin thought about Acnologia. “Acnologia looks like a killer whale”. _

_ Fact 3: The swamp titan (we haven’t seen one yet) is supposed to be a hybrid of death titan and a land titan (also hasn’t seen these yet) _

_ Fact 4: Death Titans were only supposed to exist in Hades’s realm _

_ Fact 5: Most of these dragon species were first created when I had to do a screenplay project about a kingdom ruled by an evil king and a bunch of dragon riders were going to free the land. _

_ Know any of these? No? Yes? Well there is some fanfiction brain food. Not as good as TV show brain food, but hey, it’s still food. Eat up. _

Usually I don’t have nightmares unless it is Nightmare checking up on me in case I have given up yet. This time was different, I had one of Kyrogre and Beeping. My brother was swimming the doggie paddle, trying to stay above the water as much as possible. He was breathing heavily which was not good for a sea titan, they were supposed to be able to hold their breath pretty well and not get tired by eating a lot of food and stuff. A tired titan is usually a drowned titan, that’s how life worked.

He shifted his weight and something big and dark rolled on his shoulder, the head of a sleeping death titan. It was beeping, unconscious and my brother carrying her on his back, desperately trying to get to safe land. Above him stood a huge red bridge hanging on red pipes and a few big spires. It crossed from a brushy country side with a few houses here and there with rolling hills to a big city with different sizes. I had never seen it before in person, but I knew it as San Francisco, a place too cold to spend in these days of the year. This was never part of any titan’s migrating routine, but I know there used to be land titans there. They were all killed by some crazy people who hated dragons. The only people in history who hated dragons was the Romans who thought dragons were a curse and they would rid the world of them.

Kyrogre passed a few ferries carrying lots of tourists and people visiting the islands of the bay. Everyone in the boats rushed over to the side to get a picture of him and Beeping, little kids pointing and looking through the railing, adults yelling and taking pictures, and anyone else just plain gawking at them.

One family really caught my eye for some reason. They looked completely normal, there was a salt and pepper haired father, a mother with curly brown hair, and a little girl with red pigtails and freckles. The father watched the titans in awe seeing what a movie maker couldn’t do with CGI, “This is amazing, a sea titan helping out a death titan. I wonder is this some sort of phenomena, but this is a new one for the books”. “Paul, not now. Get Nora away from the bars. That thing can jump up and bite her head off”. The girl flinched and her smile disappeared. She moved away slowly from the bars and hugged her mother’s leg. “Sally honey you are scaring Nora. This was supposed to be a fun vacation where there was no dragons for you to freak out”.

Sally, that sounded familiar...nope. Moving on.

Kyrogre inched closer to the nearest island. A large, island with a giant rock sprouting out of the center of the long white beaches. The sand was grey as the rock in the center, chipped off and smashed to bits as if a raging land titan began pounding everything to dust in an attempt to catch its tail. Yes they do that, they bash their heads too much to know what is left or right. Sitting on top of the rock was a huge gray building with a lighthouse, a huge yard covered in barbed wire, and look out towers surrounding the island. Our world’s Alcatraz.

Kyrogre shifted again when Beepings nose sunk into the ocean and bubbles appeared on the surface around her face. I could hear his mind going over the same thing a million miles an hour, “Get her to safety, get her to safety, get her to safety”. These things went over and over again till he walked onto the grey sand. There was some children playing in the water, some adults watching them and walking along the concrete path leading to the prison, but they all ran the opposite direction of the titans. Kyrogre ignored them and set Beeping down where there wasn’t as many rocks. Half of the death titan was still in the water, but on the shore well enough so she could breath without getting water up her nose. “I hope you come soon Percy”, he said into the sky and fell asleep next to Beeping.

I regained consciousness feeling two things on both sides of me. One draped on top of me like a huge pile of thick, woven, rubbery seaweed and then there was something soft and grainy below me. I thought it was just Kyrogre putting his tail on top of me again, but he didn’t breath through his tail flukes. Also he wasn’t here, he was in San Francisco on that island. 

I wanted to open my eyes, but the red in front of my vision told me if I did I would be blinded by the sun. Instead I looked to the side and opened my eyes, the sand sticking to them making it hard. 

The beach stretched and curved in a jagged way, surrounded by cliffs and wreckage from ships. The rocks were the color of red jasper, but I knew red jasper, this was some kind of rock with a lot of healthy minerals in it. The sand glittered with broken glass and sand good enough to grow flowers in, in fact some had already sprouted from being washed up on the shore. I could smell the sand was not filled with salt and the water in the surf was crystal clear as if it rained down from the beginning of time. A colorful soft coral reef bustled with life underneath the waves, growing out of even the shallowest parts of the beach. A wide variety of small dragons flew around with lazy joy and caught fish in a dazy, drunken trance. Oysters bloomed like flowers and their mouths were not closed, they were wide open, accepting the fresh air and water and even their own demise to the dragons. Pearls littered by the beds from where they were spit out, all of them perfectly round and ranging from all shapes and sizes cluttering with scattered remnants of the oysters that carried them. I had never seen a place so peaceful, so healthy, so calm and unaware of the shipwreck and devastation around it. Mother would have called it the place being lazy, stupid and oblivious, then she would scare everything into guard and go to sleep on the beach after flinging most of the shipwreck to Antarctica for being too dangerous for her children. She thinks we would get poked by a stray spear or missile if the mess wasn’t cleaned up.

It didn’t matter, it wasn’t like I would go anywhere with whatever was on top of me and it wasn’t like I wanted to. It was peaceful, more peaceful than I had ever imagined. I didn’t see Kyogre around me and for the first time I didn’t really care. My brain was in a haze, but not like the poisonous haze like at Cere’s, it was a good haze like humidity at Maui, it was just so relaxing. I let my eyes close again, soaking up the healthy sun and clean air, and joyful sounds of the life around me.

The heavy warm thing on top of me moved, its arms shifting on my chest and legs sliding over mine to get more comfortable. I lazily opened my eyes and glanced down at the mess of wet black hair in the center of my chest. Oh hey, it’s Nico what’s he doing here? I will let him stay there a little longer, he seems to be having a nice nap.

Nico let out a tiny whimper and his hand grabbed mine. I could feel his muscles calm for a second, except the ones in his arms which clung to my hand like a lifeline. Another traveled up my neck and to my face, tracing all of the lines on my jaw. I didn’t care, I didn’t mind since he was sleeping and I was relaxing, he could do whatever he wanted.

The grip on my hand softened and began caressing my knuckles from where the fingers were interwoven, I did the same back unconsciously and listened to the humming of happiness in Nico’s throat to add to the magnificent orchestra. I smiled lazily and I wondered if the sleeping boy on top was smiling too.

I could feel Nico regaining his consciousness, moving a little more. Finally he removed the hand that was on my cheek and used it to help get up. He was in fact smiling, sleepy and smiling, rising with a little bit of sand on his nose. He looked at me, our eyes caught and they held a little while and I only watched as the dark brown lazy eyes inched closer and closer, until they shot open with realization. Suddenly they disappeared, the weight of Nico leaving faster than a lightning eater could fly. “Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry”, he stammered, his face bright red. “Don’t sweat it, I don’t mind. I don’t get to be that close to people every day, but did you have a nice nap”? 

“Um, yeah, I guess. It was nice, but my arm is tingling”, Nico looked down at his slightly burned arm. Burns, I could deal with sea snake poison, hypothermia, blubber poisoning, dragon killing parasites called titan suckers and even oil expotion, but burns. I haven’t handled burns in my life unless you count sunburns which I don’t get a lot of. “It’s alright though, nothing too bad, it will cause as much damage as the sun can do, don’t worry about it, but right now we need to focus on Annabeth and Clarisse. Where are they”? Nico asked. He stood up, his jeans torn to tassels along his legs and his shirt worse, in complete rags. He was pale under the black thing along with a few old scars that looked like whip slashes here and there.

“I know you have a good nose, can you pick up anything”, Nico asked. I took a big breath of air. Let’s see, grass, trees, grass, fruit, grass, sheep, sheep, grass, sheep, sheep and more sheep, fruit, moss on rocks, more of that, some types of flowers, goats… Aha, cake and paper along with the stink of humans in intense heat. “In the mountain, watch out something stinks up there, I don’t like it”. “Well since when do we ever like doing this job”. “Good point. Off we go then”.

 

“Is this the spot”, Nico whispered outside a cave with a huge stone nearby. Nico couldn’t hear what was going on, but I had sharp ears and could hear the soft humming of a giant who didn’t know what tune he was playing, bubbling of boiling water, and the slight nervous clopping of what I recognized as high heels. Yup, this place reeked of human, sheep, goat, and what Nico said was most likely monster. Thankfully my senses were dulled a bit by the smell of the power radiating from what Nico said about a magical ram’s skin. If it wasn’t there, I would have fallen backwards and passe out, the smell was that bad and not just the monster. “Get me down from here now, before I come over there, pluck your body parts off to feed to the sea titans, then I throw your eye into the chariot field during a race”, Clarisse’s voice came out like a drill sergeant. “Fiesty little feast isn’t she, but she will be good meat for me and my honey pie”, a voice a lot like Tyson’s said happily like one of the people from the Truman show they were playing on the Beach, except this was pure evil intention glee, not fake like there.

“uh, dear, I think we better pull her up. That heat might trigger rabies or something and we don’t want that”, another voice rang out. It sounded like that satyr Grover I met once trying to sound like a girl, wait a second, oh hey, we found Grover.

What do we do”, I asked Nico since he was most likely to come up with an attack plan meaning, I am not used to making plans, I just attack with Kyrogre and Mother behind me. “Do what your biggest roll model does, let’s see, mine does”... Nico trailed off. Biggest role model eh? Let’s see there is Athrodox, na I see her little so I have no idea what she would do in this situation. Only one remains. Mother.

“AHHHH”!I charged, sword in hand and Nico calling out behind me as I charged at the the giant which I knew absolutely nothing about.


	21. Cyclopes vs. giant killer angry sea titan mother

_ Hey everyone, this is taking ages, my New monitor is now broken thanks to a stupid cat peeing in it so I have to use my mom’s computer for at least two months and then see what happens. Other than that I have school and my sister is driving me crazy because she wants to make skins so it will be slower to update. Just saying, I am not trying to neglect you, you all are very precious to me, but it is near impossible to try and finish these things in the times I used to. _

I was pretty sure I was doing damage with my mother’s technique of running in, killing the problem, then destroying everything in my way. 

“Gah! Another demigod? OW! That’s my foot”. The cyclopes yelled in panic and tried to bash me when I was right in front of a pile of spiky bones. I jumped in the air and the hand slammed down on the bones when I landed on his fist. It of course recoiled with a yelp and that is how I could get close to his face. A little strategy formed in my mind that might help when my mother’s way of doing things didn’t work, I am the small guy in this and she only uses her technique on small guys.

“Get off my shoulder little demigod and in the pot”, the cyclopes yelled and slammed his fist on the place I was standing. There was a huge crack and the cyclopes shoulder bent downward. “OWWEE! You little human get off of me. OW”! I shoved the sword in his gigantic neck and it melted through like water, but then it was stuck once it was in. I tried getting it out, but it was in there like a thorn. Suddenly there was a hand that almost grabbed be, but it instead groped around and touched my face a little. I jumped off in time and hid behind the woll couch to reform a better opportunity.

“ Where’d he go? Oh well. Now I have three demigods for my honey pie and me. Right sweety”? “Um, be careful honey, that girl looks like she is getting too hot”, Grover said in his wedding dress. A nice mermaid cut with sweetheart neckline and a flowery veil-wait what am I talking about. I don’t usually know this stuff, maybe it is the wedding cruises coming back to haunt me, but I don’t regret that cake, that was a delicious cake. Or that time a couple dropped a ring off the side and I stood on Kyrogre’s shoulders and giving it back to them, well let’s just say their black hair is now white and they forever blabbing about mermen rescuing their wedding ring with people slowly backing away from them.

“I will catch the demigod later, the door is closed and all the sheepies are joining, there is no where to go”, the cyclopes said happily. I still couldn’t get how he thought Grover was the marrying type, especially since he was apparently what the cyclopes liked based on all the sheep bones everywhere. There was a lot of tattle tale signs that Grover wasn’t a cyclopes, first of all his weight. I would expect he would at least be Tyson’s size to ever be thought of as a cyclopes. Grover was tiny, plus his movements were more fast and elegant than the tottering cyclopes.

“Um, honey, how do you know there aren’t more demigods out there that might try to get in”, Grover asked. “Oh yeah, the little one, oh well, it isn’t like he has anywhere to run, when this door is closed, the mountain becomes impossible to climb up or down, if he is worrying my honey pie that much, I will go get him”.

Riptide was still in his neck, slowly sinking in, the skin around it burning and hissing which looked like it grossed the satyr out. “The sword sweetie, does it hurt”, Grover motioned to the bronze blade. “Polyphemus doesn’t feel a thing”, he said, “but if it hurts my honey pie, I will take it out. How cute, she is worrying for me”. Polyphemus grabbed at the sword with his huge fingers, the too small hilt slipping out of them. Finally he used his nails, gnarly, broken and uneven, he was using his thumb and pinky because the other nails had broken off leaving chewed stubs. Finally the sword came out with a pop and he threw it across the room where it clattered, right next to me. Perfect.

Taking my chance I ran at him, this time slashing instead of stabbing. I first took a chunk out of his heel, I missed his achilles, but monster blood still came gushing out like a river. “Ow! Not again, what an annoying little human. Come back here.

I was facing the rain of a sheep bone net that was supposed to be made for something bigger than  me. I jumped up through a hole and slashed at his wrist before rolling on the floor and cutting myself on hoof shards. The floor on the cave looked like a ice rink that was skated on too often and then petrified and covered in shards from the ceiling. However the cuts I was making only made him madder, he didn’t slow down and came at me in the same pace as before, not unless he was faster.

Suddenly, the upper half of the mountain disappeared with a big crack and a black and white flash. Undisturbed blue sky spread above them and two lazy dragons flew along like drunk eagles. Polyphemus stopped in his tracks and looked up confused at the sky, “Where did the roof go”, he asked stupidly. Clarisse and Annabeth, once hanging on the roof were now in their body shaped holes in the wall, faces in first, but they luckily landed in a patch of clay since the walls were made of different stones. Grover looked ecstatic, taking in the warm sunshine and fresh air.

The ground shook like a giant was walking, each step a half a second after the other. Then a familiar roar echoed throughout the valley and scared the sheep into a corner. Grover stopped looking so happy, Annabeth snored in her clay and Clarisse poked her head out yelling in fright “What was that”?

There was another roar, louder this time and a big black head filled everyone’s vision. Huge mouth flukes scraped against the wall and a white underbelly blocked my vision of Polyphemus. The head finally lifted, taking a giant cyclopes kicking and screaming in the mouth of something that made him look like an ant in a bullfrog’s mouth. A familiar three flower petal design on her head distinguished her pretty well. The dragon threw her head up in the air and the cyclopes went flying right into her throat where she swallowed with a growl.

“Mother! Hey mother”, I called. The dragon turned her giant head towards me and her eyes lit up with joy, a little cyclopes sitting on her head. “Hello Percy, Hi Grover”. The satyr was shivering in his wedding dress, “Oh no, oh no, not her again. You, get out of the way or she is going to…” Mother put her head down, making Tyson slide off and hit the floor and I was bombarded by a giant pink tongue.

First it went all over my face, then it moved to my hair and making my neck bend backward forcefully. It was big, wet, and smelled like dead fish, but if I wasn’t used to it by now I would be a snail on a rock. “Oh dear I have missed you so much, I swear that storm was the worst thing to happen to us and the currents are out of control now thanks to it. Every single one of them could whisk you away to… Your hair tastes like explosions, who blew you up”? My mom began ranting angrily. Her teeth were suddenly lifting me up gently by my side and I was carried over into the air. I could see her tail knocking over trees and boulders and what looked like the other half of the mountain, some of it still intact, but smashed a bit. I was then set in her feet as a makeup ground and she began trying to rip my hair out again. The others were staring at me, Annabeth in fear mostly for the dragon, Clarisse in confused awe, Grover in pure terror and a hint of curiosity and Nico in surprise, he was trying to edge his way away from the boulder where he was in full view of the giant sea titan.

“You just ate him”, I told her and she growled. “Then I will cough him up, smoosh him, then eat him again”, She growled, then went back to my hair. “Wait, don’t you want to meet my human friends first”, I asked her. She stopped again and looked slightly annoyed, giant tail making more holes in the island. Finally she gave up and put me back on the ledge with the others.

Everyone’s eyes traveled from me to the titan, then back to me, Grover was making some kind of whiney sound. “Everyone, this is my mother. Mother this is Nico, Clarisse, Annabeth, Tyson, and Grover”. “Does she have a name”, Nico asked casually, looking over the titan with admiration. Everyone slowly turned their heads to him as if he were crazy. “Of course she has a name”, Annabeth explained shakily, “The killer Titan, Colossal sea titan, Godzilla, oh and many more”. Mother growled at this, looking as though I was the only thing keeping her from eating Annabeth. “I named her Kinana”, Tyson said, swaying back and forth on his heals. Nico let out a snort, “You named her after our art teacher”? My mother, I mean Kinana distorted her face with annoyance and let out an annoyed growl out the side of her mouth. Grover looked like he was no longer a goat, but a pale sheep, “Th-that’s the t-titan that killed Percy, s-she ate him when he w-was two”. Tears were running down his face and his goat legs no longer carrying him. He was looking straight at me, and the titan behind me. I could almost see the memories in his eyes, a green eyed toddler walking towards him either that or a fat seagull. 

I knew I recognized him from somewhere, the smell of him charging up memories before I even had a sense of smell as great as now. Memories before the ocean, fish and dragons. A memory that smelled like a homey apartment, a memory of a little mobile made of whales. 

Before I knew it I was engulfed in a goat hug, Grover bleating against my shoulder. “You're alive, thank the gods you’re alive. Oh you don’t know how awful it was when you left, Sally was so sad. She will be so happy”, He sobbed, making my bare shoulder wet,“What happened to you”. I blinked for a second, I don’t usually see this reaction out of people or goats whatever, “Um… The titan  _ didn’t  _ eat me and that made all the different. Just destroyed the beach”.


	22. History of the Colassal sea titan

**IMPORTANT INFORMATION IN AUTHOR’S NOTE. IT WILL SAVE YOU A LOT OF CONFUSION.**

 

_ Great now you are reading this. I made this chapter not only for my own good. I thought it would be exciting to learn our named Kinana’s life. This will hopefully give some insight on her temper and habit for destroying everything if something does something wrong. _

 

I couldn’t remember long after I was born, I can remember back in my second year. I was a single calf, one mother, unknown father of course and the sea. My mother traveled around, always on the spot when it came to migration, never late, never early. She always had everything planned out and remembered everything. It was hard when your mother was a picture perfect example of a sea titan, it made me feel inferior, stupid, inaccurate, and a slacker.

She was old looking, her skin was webbed instead of smooth like most mothers I see with one calf. Her spots and underbelly was creamy with age and she was missing one eye due to a hit with a whaling harpoon. She was also small, being the size of a male titan who are usually smaller than a female. She also had white spots on her feet and they would stop at her elbows and knees. Also she wasn’t fast, she was slow and talked as if she was antient.

For those years I thought she thought I was just like her. I was given the entire history of the world and had to memorize every single demon, god, timeline, and even some famous shipwrecks caused by the gods and why we migrated. It was a headache, I could never memorize those things, no matter how hard I tried. It took up most of my time, I couldn’t play, I couldn’t go hunt for sharks, and my mind was too busy to notice the ships taking pictures of me. It was just swimming and memorizing everything as fast as possible.

The third year I was alive, we were right on time for the three day long breeding time. It was in the summer, the sun hot and the days long and drousy. We were on time as usual, some dragons already there, swimming in the warm waters lazily. I remember a turtle swam by my nose, huge and lazy, eyes dark and as if in a trance. Everyone else was the same, female dragons spinning around males. Little calves watching or playing as if nothing bad is going on. I couldn’t feel what they were feeling, my mind was sharp as a new harpoon and I knew every single slow movement of my mother’s tail. 

After a while my mother’s movements began getting faster and more exuberant than ever, but she dove deeper than usual, swimming where the water was most foggy. Every particle hid the grey lines on her body and darkened her skin. Her scars seemed to disappear beneath the surface currents and the water became warmer as if it had collected sunlight for a long time. It seemed to be only taking that warmth and not producing light like it was supposed to. My mother began swimming in these circular motions around a large black rock that submerged itself out of the ocean like a huge spiral. The rock, unlike the black ones that made the reef, this one was darker and with less bubbles, it was the rock seeming to take the light. 

Near the surface, where the waves crashed against the rock, it was smooth and shiny like glass, black glass, volcanic, black glass.

I tried not to notice, I tried not to get distracted. A good titan doesn’t get distracted or they will be eaten by shark hunting dragons attacking from below. Distracted titans are the ones killed by mans’ silly little harpoons. Distracted titans die of the cold and starvation. I needed to focus. 

“Human born of the dragon’s tongue. Um… Frees the spirits of life among...umm… two worlds that were once in divide… er… brought together in a birth’s collide… Mom, could you tell me the rest, I don’t remember”. I spotted the same sleeping coral dragon for the third time. We were going in circles and something was in the water that made my skin tingle. “Mom…?” My mother let out a moaning sound, kind of like a whale’s song, but it was louder and more desperate. I was so close it hurt the holes near my mouth fins humans call ears. Her eyes became distant and scary, as if she was under some kind of control. The water smelled of something that made me dizzy and it smelled like her. I let out a tiny scream and swam off, not seeing the big, smokey male coming behind my mother.

The water was foggier than before, the fish four feet away looked like blurry, tiny dots. I could see every single sun ray in the water near me clear as shallow waters which I was small enough to swim in at the time. I never noticed the four titans I bumped into. One was a large male, with a big flower petal like my three running across his head, another male, my age with a white tail with black tips who said “whoah. What’s the hurry for”, but I couldn’t hear him through the painful ringing. I wanted to get this stuff away from me, it was fogging my mind. I couldn’t get away from it, wherever I went it smelled like a new titan, another female titan who was searching for someone to have calves with. I had no idea where I was going.  I could barely feel the sand I slapped with my tail until suddenly I was tumbling through waves bringing me to shore.

I had completely lost control, the currents were everywhere, tugging at my wings, pushing at my legs, turning my tail. My vision exploded with sand and volcanic rock scratched at my skin and eyes, small silver shore fish darted away from me and into waters that weren’t filled with dragon. I could feel air on my wings and my body feeling like I was made out of seal meat. It hurt my insides laying there. 

I rolled around in the waves and sand, trying to find what was up and what was down. Then the water disappeared, wet sand and foam on my back, and little waves lapping at my wing. little white and red dragons chirped on the rocks in large flocks, watching me breath as much air as possible. I had never taken in so much oxygen in my life, it felt awesome like my lungs were finally relaxing. Mother and I never slept on land, we slept in a state of autopilot, swimming up and down, to take breaths and moving forward. I always woke up with sore limbs and they usually got sorer during the long trips to the movements of fish and dragons we pray on.

“Don’t stay there don’t stay like that for too long. We know this is your first time on land, but if you stay too long up here your organs will stop working”, said a deep, male voice with a jolly tint to it. I could only see blue sky and those noisy dragons flying around, but if I turned my head a bit, I could see some black and white shapes that I knew was more than one titan. “Really kid I think you should roll over”, the voice said again.

I listened to it, but being on land for the first time, I felt immobile as a blob fish in low pressure. I was this big, blubbery thing on land and upside down with sand up my nose, getting up was not a piece of cake. First I flapped my wings, just throwing sand around, then I squirmed, then I tried to use my feet. All of my attempts were useless. I was an upside down sea turtle. 

“Hold still, let me help you”, the voice said again. I felt teeth on one of my wings, tugging it upward and over. My body followed it, slowly flipping upright till, I could touch my feet to the sand. The world turned from an upside down beach to a right side up beach, covered in volcanic rock, dead coral, sea shells, and a bit of human trash here and there. Like when the titans usually came to a place, all the humans had retreated into their homes beyond, but a few watching boats remained and there was some areas blocked off by iron so hotel people could still spend some time at the beach and not be in danger of vicious titans.

to my left was the sea, spread wide and waving, islands popping out here and there, a few titans jumping out and going back in. The water was a shallow greenish color, like near the surf. The female smell lingered with the water, and was washing into the sand beside me. I reeked of it. I couldn’t take the smell.

I got up and stumbled over to the black shapes I knew as other titans splashing in something. An adult loomed over me, a particularly large male who looked like he just reached the age of twenty four, when a titan is deemed full grown like you humans at the age of eighteen. He had a few wave shaped stripes running down his tail and his black skin was tinted grey. Most of his first mouth fin was bitten off, an old scar as if from a shark hunter, their teeth were that jagged shape that outlined his scar. I could tell it was years old, most likely got it as a baby. There was also a net wrapped around his back, draping over him like a cloak, but the holes were too small for him to get stuck in and the edges were shortened by biting. It wrapped around his front legs and chest, not harming him, but making the net stay on. His eyes, unlike a lot of male titans, glittered with curiosity and playfulness, as if he never really got to be a calf, more like jumped straight into adulthood. 

“Hey look, another one”, another voice yelled out, it was younger than him, but still older than I was, maybe a nine year old titan. The oldest ones by the water raised its head, younger than the male titan of course, but she was pretty and serious, hardened and ready for whatever came her way. Her skin was like a black dolphin’s, black marble with a hint of a pearly color. Her underbelly was white as snow as if never got a drop of blood or dirt on it in her life and her lips were the same color. “Well she is here early, usually they stay longer with mother, usually till she has the next calf”.

“What are you talking about. What am I early for what”? I asked, feeling a little intimidated by the young dragons and the fact that I was smaller and weaker on land than they were. The marbled titan strode over to the male, her head high and her body swaying effortlessly as she walked. I was surprised a sea dragons would look that majestic on land, my legs felt like little sticks under my weight, and I didn’t weigh as much as she did. 

“Well young one”, the large male said, “You are a daughter of the sea titan with the lost eye? Am I correct”? “Um… My mother is missing an eye, but I don’t know about my father, I never met him. Are you talking about my mother”? He nodded, light shining off of his fin and half fin, making the jagged edges look visible. 

“We are talking about her. You think she is young since she only has you. She has lectured you constantly through your three years you were alive? Did she not”? He asked, a tone that noted that he had asked this question before. “Yes she does do that, why are you asking me, you seem to know about it”? 

The female titan got a sad look on her face and looked at the larger one, she looked like the age of twenty one, exactly three years after the male. He looked like this was his least favorite subject. His face reminded me of mom’s when she began talking about the prophecy uttered by a god of creation before her death. It was an unusual prophecy and the creation gods knew they had nothing to do with it. The weight was now on the gods of destruction’s wings. 

“Look, your mother, she isn’t as young as you think and no you are not the only calf she had, she had eighteen in her entire life time”. Those few words didn’t seem real to me. They felt like some kind of joke this playful adult was trying to pull with a serious face. But I knew myself better, I knew my brain was easing into denial so I wouldn’t go into shock and die. Any sea titan with something in its head would know how to deal with this, unlike you humans who jump right into it just to confuse yourself. 

The questions began flooding into my brain, then the answers followed. Like puzzle pieces they found their place, leaving the complicated question that only a titan with a full experienced answer to these questions. Each answer to each question made perfect sense and this big male titan just said. It especially confirmed the rumors I had denied until now

Before I even opened my mouth he answered, “I know what you are going to ask, everyone asks the same question. Why would she? No one knows why she keeps doing this, she just likes having calves then abandoning them once she is pregnant or has the next one. some of the eighteen have survived, most of my older brothers and sisters have passed on, but I survived the next three years. Then I met Yor right here, she was abandoned just like me, we made a great team and the next three years went by and we found Mirk over there, she is the one talking”. 

I could hear some high pitched jabbering in the distance by the other sea titans, the biggest was a female with a thick white neckline and fairly thin body. She was talking to a group of younger titans, one who was almost completely white with speckles instead of the usual pattern of an orca. 

“Now we help out our brothers and sisters and even other young titans that have gone through the same things as we have, take Geo, his mother died of a disease when she got here, thankfully he didn’t catch it or anyone else in the ocean”.

“So I will be abandoned in a few days or more”? Everyone nodded, even the ones from the other direction. “So do I go back to her or stay with you”? I asked. 

“Do whatever you wish”, Yor said, her voice smooth and friendly”. 

 

I accepted of course and stayed with them on land most of the time during the months at the hawaiian islands. They were also right about my mother, the next few months she had another baby, a completely black one. Something was off about him, when I swam under them to get a fish he tried to attack me. I was chased off by mother, but I would have beat him. Other than the fact that he was younger, he had this cocky attitude like he could defeat anything, but this attitude was different from cocky dragons who wanted to impress someone. It was a cockyness that only villans had, it was a cockyness that could kill, it was a cocky attitude for evil. Whatever you may call it.

He also gave off bad vibes, not even the pilot fish would swim near him, and they love feeding off of the remains of other animals that the titans would eat. I wondered what we would do when mother got rid of him just like the rest of us, everyone in my pod feared him and his coming in three year, even Nautilus, the oldest male in the group. They were the only pod I knew that kept names, mine was Ke, for the names got shorter each time.

After the breeding time, the smell had gone from the water, and I wasn’t the only one annoyed by it. Everyone in the group could smell it and they washed it off their skin in the pools made by low tides just so the water could be released in the evening when we slept, that way the tide pools were full of fresh rich, river water from the volcano's above. Then there was the other side of the island where the waters weren’t as warm and the sand was rocky, but it was clean and not full of that stuff so we couldn’t complain about getting rocks stuck between our toes when we flew back to soft sand.

The years with them were the best years of my life, I got to play with my older brothers and sisters, eat whatever I liked most, and didn’t have to worry about learning and memorizing, I was free and I was happy. I found out soon enough that Nautilus rebelled against whatever mother did. Be places on time, he got there early to get the last of something in some other season or last due to pit stops and the pod’s favorite places to go in the ocean. It soon turned into we were always late to these things and never early since mother actually listened to her new son about going early even though I bugged her about it many times when I was young. The farther away we were from those two, the better it was and the happier everyone was. I could tell they all had a grudge on her and whatever the opposite she did, we would do it.

I remember once Geo and the titan the same age as him, Culm, went up around mother and sang the prophecy she hated out in a happy joyful tune. “Human born of the dragon’s tongue. Frees the spirits of life among.Two worlds that were once in divide. Brought together in a birth’s collide”. It was such a catchy song everyone began singing it in that fishing area. The sailors even whistled it at times, not knowing the words, but recognizing the shanty tune.

There was a lot of ruckus with the humans about it, I could see them awing even more at us, taking out cameras and holding them up for as long as they could and taking in the song and noises. Plus there were more people on the boat than I had seen on land and in their markets. I could see the annoyance on mother’s face whenever I was close. The calf she had bore the same look whenever the sound rippled through the water, he even tried to attack some of the adults and calves singing it, but Geo and Culm played a trick on him to lead him away.

That song became our travel tune, we sang it anywhere we went, even with other pods. I actually got to see the male I bumped into when I was trying to get away from that smell. He was a funny calf with four older brothers. I still remember the look on his face when he found out how many brothers and sisters I had and his desire to be an extremely strong male titan and to one day work with a human like the dolphins in a bay off somewhere.

He was officially my best friend and I got to be around him whenever the migration ended I would see him again and we would play with anyone we found nearby. Some I saw again, some mysteriously disappeared with their parents or sometimes the parents came back without them, it was unusual especially when we began disappearing left and right each year near the Yellow Sea. 

 

When the time came where we were back on the islands, everyone was nervous. Geo and Culm, knowing that they pissed the little demon off, were especially. Geo was pacing on land and muttering to himself under his breath, making the sand around him sink lower and lower and wearing the pads on his feet out. I was worried about his health, he still smelled of that stuff and he was over exerting himself, soon he would collapse on the ground and die. 

“Geo calm down. He isn’t that bad he is only three years old and he has none of us on his side. Plus he might not even want to join us, I know him, he wants to rule the world by himself and he won’t be able to use us as stepping stools”. “Maybe he can”, the titan roared nervously, “I pissed him off real bad Ke, I can’t take back my song and he changed your mother, what if he can make her come back to kill me, they are both on the same page. She may be eighty kid but eighty for a human means they are as delicate as a dead jellyfish, eighty here means they can still launch you to the dead sea. And look at me, I am a twig of a titan, you are bigger than me and you are six years younger than me. I am a tiny thing, he will soon be my size and squish me like a bug without you looking”. 

His large eyes were wide as sea shells. He was usually the calm type, problem came his way, he would just snake out of it. Geo was in fact a small dragon, his legs were longer than most titans and thinner. His wings were large and they were skinny, a miracle that they kept him in the air. Instead of the flat shape titans usually take on, his chest was broad and it shrunk to his hind end where his back legs, a strange and warped, suck out from his side. His front legs were longer on his front than in the back, so he was slanted a bit and his tail would touch the ground. Instead of black he was a brownish color and there was some islanding plates along his back to form a laddered pattern. His tail was also a funny shape, his flude was thicker and rounder than usual so he used his wings to swim most of the time. His special spot was on his eye, the white spot that usually existed behind our eyes never usually ended up in the same spot as the eye, but his white spot covered his eye so instead of the usual dark brown color titans had, his eyes were bright blue and he squinted a lot because they were so sensitive. 

“Hey maybe he will be too stubborn to come with us. If I know him he is the most stubborn titan I know and that is above me Geo, now quit pacing or you will drop dead, and take a bath you smell like that stuff, gross”.

That was only one example of what everyone was like in their worried state. Clum had found every escape route on the entire island. Mirk was quiet and began hiding under rocks even though her immense size. Nautilus was the only one in the family who didn’t look worried in any way, he wore his usual face and playful gleam in his eyes. He still lead everyone to where the fish were and still kept his cool, even when everyone else was scared. He was a great leader indeed.

Turns out all that worrying was for nothing, mother kept this calf instead of let him go like the rest of us. A huge bubble of anticipation popped above our head at the news and everyone calmed down immediately. I couldn’t help it, but I was a little jealous of the black titan. Who wouldn’t. He got to stay with his mother and neither of all of did. We were all abandoned for an unknown reason, but he wasn’t and he was a freak. She could have kept Nautilus, Yor, or some of the other smart ones in this group, but she kept that demon called a titan. Who knows, maybe he was a demon, we couldn’t tell from the distance we had to keep ourselves and him.

 

Those years were the greatest years that I had lived when I was young. I was truly in family and a good one too. Crazy, but great family. It didn’t grow from me for a while, that was until Nautilus got a mate and had twin calves together. That was a really slow year, his mate stayed with our pod while she was pregnant, but was too weak to go on land most of the time. I gave up my mini vacation to Louisiana so we would at least have a few days of rest in the migration spot in  the Mexican bay of Rosas. Down at the bottom of the bay was these huge nets of some type of soft coral filled with fish. The fish was not the reason for the migration, it was because of the large creatures that lurked there became large, juicy and abundant every few years in that area.

The calves were cute, they were very playful after they got old enough to swim with us at our usual pace. I remember their names were Min and Nim, named after two unnatural spires that jutted from the ocean leading to the Red sea. The two were like class pets, they just made everyone’s day better in every way and they especially loved their father, saying they had the best daddy in the world of dragons.

The disappearances began coming each year near the Yellow sea, each year another pod of titans would disappear faster than we could create more to take their places. Without those disappearances, the world we had to survive in was hard, it was near impossible to keep our numbers steady especially with the male fighting male rule we had to follow by. Most of the young titans I called my friends were now gone, now even their grieving parents. Precautions had been set, there was deeper diving and every dragon was on end about something below. I found out the hard way that the threat wasn’t below, but above.

Nautilus took that precaution and made sure we held our breath for as long as possible. The largest titans dove deeper than the younger ones, leaving Min and Nim to be the highest so they could get air easier, they were younger and had smaller lungs and they needed more air. 

Underneath the water in our yellow sea was almost just like any other sea, except there was more trash, from nets to ancient pots and from bottles and bags to old wood tools and bones from farm animals given to the “gods of the ocean” as a gift. There was even a sunken temple ship that they threw people off to the titans so we wouldn’t eat them and knock over their ships. These humans were messed up in the history based off of what I heard, but fear is a good thing for us. The water tasted like soaked vegetation, the water was full of the taste of rice stalks and grass. 

I hated it, the dragons there were so tasteless, a defense mechanism that they used so none of the fishermen would eat them. Even so, they were still endangered due to the belief their scales or gills or some part of them would heal one of the many common diseases that pop up a lot in the human world. 

Rays large as old fashioned bike wheels sped over the yellowish mud and junk gracefully, flinging some of the mud in the air as they whooshed by and sucked up tiny fish that lived in the rotting gold carriages and vases from hundreds of years ago still intact to this day. Some of the “gifts” were now brown and green, some like the big dog statue that belonged on an old temple ship that sunk still had some color to it, glittering in the sunlight with little dragons swimming around it as if it was their home to be around it. Some underwater rice waved at us as we swam by from the mud that was so fertile the rice could grow underneath the water and soak up the rays that came through the water. In certain places the mud made wavy formations from the currents that had made it a funny form. Large armored dragons walked around with spider crabs and burrowed in the sand to find a certain type of worm that fed of the remains of any plant life that had been buried in the mud.

All of it didn’t know the worry of our family or didn’t care. They had their own problems and if one of them disappeared, it was easy for them to lose part of their species, they were all for themselves. Sea titans and bigger dragons like us were out to survive and keep the entire species surviving.

I could see large ships above, huge ships, ships unlike any I had seen. I have seen the huge spanish galleons, the Junks humans call them, but they were just a little bigger than the junks, those things were big enough to let a full grown titan male sleep on them. One of them looked like it had a huge platform, it was mostly flat and wide, not very big and they were all made of metal. There was about twenty of them out there, floating around for some reason. 

The water became more eerie, fish began to disappear and the dragons that usually were abundant in the area due to its large plot of sand that would be full of food before miles of a drop that made one of the four deepest trenches in the world. The water looked dark and thick with something evil, something that sent a bad chill in the air. There was a faint scent of blood that bothered me so I swam down to Nautilus and his mate.

“Ke, what have I told you about the formation, there might be something below us when we swim over the trench”, the great titan growled, scanning ahead and below as if to see the ridge of something that was big enough to take down entire pods of sea titans. His eyes traveled to the large ships now pulsing with telecommunication. It vibrated in my jaw fins and the sharp use of electricity filled the air with its it horrid high noise that annoyed me to the point of flipping the ships. “I know you see those ships too, what do you think they are doing up there. Those are way too big to be transporting oil or stupid objects, what do you think they are for and if we should dive lower, something tells me those being here is not a coincidence”. Nautilus looked incredulous, eyes narrowing at me, then up at the ships. Through the curtain like waves separating us from the human world and air, I could see little people loading large things that pointed into the water, but what they heald was shrouded by shadows. The male titan snorted a huge amount of bubbles, and called everyone into a dive, the calves in the center so the oldest were closest to the ships. 

Above was Yor with Geo and Clum at her sides. Below them was the rest surrounding the youngest of the pod. I could hear voices above, men shouting in Chinese at each other. Footsteps on upper and lower decks of the ships shocked the water with little ripples that were torn away by the currents. A sense of war filled the water, a little voice yelling something in the back of my mind to attack those ships, but I ignored it like anyone else would do in my pod. I  could hear clicks and clangs of iron and switches as more of the long cannon like things were positioned in the water.

Suddenly a piercing boom, shot through the water and startled anything alive in the water. I could only watch in horror as a spear thick as our legs shot through the water and shot straight through Yor and barely impaling Ho ,the brother before me, and striking Min. I could hear her scream in pain as the huge spear went through her hip and stopped. Reaching its targets and completing its mission, sprouted something that resembled to the hook ends on harpoons so it carried the instantly dead Yor and screaming Min upward towards the ship.  

Nautilus roared in fury and launched at the line pulling his daughter and sister up while the others fled around in panic. The water turned red with whispy blood that spread around like fat branches on a tree. It blocked out the sun a bit so Yor and Min looked like giant fuzzy whale like shadows pulled up by the humans and onto a ship. Four more blasts echoed through the water and four more appeared, harpooning the rest of my family in any place. One hit Geo in the head and his neck, not able to support the rest of his body, snapped and his body came off and began sinking into the abyss. Clum, his greatest friend let out a blood curdling scream as he was impaled in the chest. I could see he was spitting out blood like fire, most likely the hot spray reaction for defense.

The water was now red with blood and the limp bodies of my brothers and sisters became complete shadows in the red. I couldn’t even see the boats above us, just crimson sunlight trying to clear the horrible scene of its paint. I swam around trying to find the wires that pulled my brothers and sisters up from the bloody water. 

I found one, more like bumped into it. It hurt my nose alright and it was the same thickness of spear and made of metal. It bent due to how it was plated, flat and smooth but it could bend in any direction a certain length. I tried my best to bite it away, but it was too thick and too strong for my jaws to do any damage to it. I tried my best, but the line kept hoisting and I could see the biggest dark shadow yet, it was Nautilus’s mate. 

Not wanting to bear the sight or get shot, I dove lower into the ocean and zigzagged to dodge any in case they came. Four came at me, four grazing my side, tail, head, and wings. The first two weren’t that accurate and fast, but the rest were definitely desperate and sliced a nasty cut in my tail.

The voice in my head was growing louder till I could hear what it said. It grew louder with each scent of blood and each dying wail  onboard the ships. 

“Destroy the ships. Kill all the humans on it. Destroy young titan, that is what you were born to do. You were made to be the queen of the sea”, the voice hissed. It took on a sweet, motherly tone. Smooth like pacific waters, but it took on a dangerous background. Most humans would have feared it like one may fear Medusa or Nightmare’s eyes. “Nautilus told me not to fight, just run away. That is what everyone else tells me”.

The voice chuckled, “Oh my young descendant, you are misguided by their fear, which you have none of. You have the strength to rule the ocean with iron teeth. All of your kind are considered kings, but your fear for these weak humans instead. Your entire kin was born to keep the population of creatures off the sea and in order. You govern the sea and these humans are disobeying your command. Why don’t you show them how it is done”. 

Another spear whisked by and barely grazed my shoulder as if pushed away by a current or mysterious force. An anger I had kept locked up for years boiled inside of me. Anger for my mother, jealousy towards my youngest brother, anger for the things humans did to islands and beaches some creatures called their homes, anger towards the suffering of her comrades, anger she felt at the very second. That anger felt good, it felt natural, anger she would have only learned through death if she kept living in peace.

Her tail began moving on its own, heading straight towards the surface as fast as she could. There was sunlight and she could see clearer. There was no ships separating her from the sky, and she burst into the air and rained blood on the ships. All of them were huge and made entirely of metal and looked like any old tanker. The docks were a lot flatter though and easier to hoist up their catches.All of them were slanted a bit to make it easier to get the dead titans onboard. 

The things were now covered in blood from my pod, bodies of my sisters and brothers, friend, and nieces, resting upon the water and blood covered decks of the ships. The men who speared them, cut off their limbs and passed them over to the huge flatter ship, the only one that didn’t fire any cannons. It was a bloody mess, everywhere and it was covered in the chopped up carcases of my brothers and sisters.

So much anger boiled up to the point where I flew down and rammed right into one of the harpooned ships armed with huge guns. The weak metal gave into the force and crumpled underneath and the boat gave a huge shudder. The people screamed onboard as the thing went sideways until it crashed into its neighbor, knocking that over too. 

More blood from atop the ships spilled into the ocean. Huge waves of blood emerged from the mess and slashed at the other ships when I lost control. I don’t remember the details of that, but I knew when I came to consciousness, I was flying over a blood and metal covered sea

  
_ *pant… seventeen… pages… of this… *pant… and I have another piece of this story to go… OH by the gods I am beat… This chapter took me forever to write and… how long has it been? A month?... Ugh after this I am going to take a break and update the other fanfictions… Maybe I can get that done in less amount of time. Sorry for taking forever and (passes out on keyboard) _


	23. History of the Baby Titan

_ For a birth there is a death and for a death there is a birth. The cycle goes around and we all know of it, but it still hurts when something is lost and you have no idea where it has gone, in heaven, into a new life, or just gone forever. I make this in memory of Plankton (not from Sponge Bob). Oh, she was a pathetic thing, father was her uncle and her mother was her aunt and she shared a birth with four others. One brother died young, but she lived on and fought on through her life. She was skinny and small, the litter born after her grew to twice the size as she was. They all shared a nursery together, where many joined them, a black kitten named Sqeaker and then the birth of a litter of three who moved in from where they were born in a closet. More and more of her siblings went to a nice home with a good family, but she stayed longer than the rest. They were bigger than her so they could climb the gate separating her and the world of dogs, she could not due to her lack of sight. Then she, Beeping, Clink, and Squeaker moved to my room along with with an adopted white cat named Rincompoop. Every day they were set out to run free and returned at night. During that time she sat under a lamp by the computer and occasionally crossed over the keyboard for no exact reason. That is till two viruses popped up in our house, one unknown flu thingy and Ringworm brought by an ugly short legged bengal of a savannah that all the kittens got. Squeaker just got sniffles, but Plankton, Beeping and Clink got it. Beeping and Cink are healthy cats, and it didn’t effect them that much, due to her tiny form, lack of eating, and already unstable liniage, she got really sick to the point where she couldn’t eat without throwing up. We tried all we could, but it wasn’t enough to save her and she died early April 1st. I woke up to found her peacefully sleeping where she usually was, Clink and Beeping by her side the entire time, from last night to that dawn. _

A huge wave of fresh water from the tidepool burst out onto the white sand. Now the soft and warm substance was sticky and cooled with water, turning a darker shade than it originally was. Little groves began forming in the sand as the water trickled into the stinky warm ocean waters, lapping up each clean drop it would take. Some of it just turned to steam under the sun’s sharp glare and the ocean seemed to be a giant cooking pot, but that was only the surface. Waves lapped against black rocks, smashed a little due to past times where a huge pod of giant dragons played, fought, debated, and slept on the shores. Now only one remained, sitting gloomily in the cool water of the large tide pool once used by others alongside her.

This was the place I met my family, this was the place they all shared in common, not just the stupid sites they had to go to every year. This was the one place I enjoyed going to once in awhile, for years it was a happy spot. I barely ever dwelled on that thought though, it always would bring down my day.

Nah, I was just grumpy, not like it was a change to what I was usually like. Now I was grumpy all the time, and the biggest dragon in the entire world based on who I saw around these days. Dragons feared me now, good, they better keep away from me, no one should or I will whack them to the other side of the world. Unlike them, I was a real sea titan, they were just whales in the smooth skin of a titan. So happy, so easygoing, so oblivious to what humans were doing. Ugh when they swam around in the intoxicating hormones here they took it with them, the females were dumb as cucumbers and the males were like fat nurse sharks. They all followed where their mommies told them to go and went to the same places all the time, even though they can go anywhere. Heck even my best friend was one of those suckers, he still is, living in a blissful, ignorant life while I had seen the deepest parts of the ocean, the most populated part of the ocean and the prettiest. I found the castle of Poseidon and a lost city made of gold. They were swimming in the same plain oceans and the same plain shit all the time.

My giant tail slapped the water sending another wave behind my onto the dirt this time, a fragrant smell coming from the flowers and leaves when wettened that drowned out a little bit of the stench from the ocean. It had been three years since I could give off that smell, but I could control it, but it made me more grumpy, something I could handle. Being grumpy didn’t kill me and it was my happiness these days, and being full.

Personally, I didn’t want children like other dragons, I didn’t want another family to be taken away from me, I could never cope with that again. If I had to I would prefer to strangle myself in the California kelp and let my meat draw sharks to eat the people on the beach. It was people’s fault, they destroyed everything and gave species new predators. That’s why I tried to smoosh as much as as I can when they were just sitting there on the beach and peeing in the waves.

I breathed out hard, letting a groan escape from me, this water felt good. Relaxing and calming. It was fresh and clean, with no filthy hormones in it, made just my size so she could sleep peacefully in it. I was extra tired from the journey, trying to get to the beach before the other titans and make sure to be unseen by the males who would always stalk nearby when it was time to move these days.

The waves beat against the sand at a steady pace, one, whoosh, two, whoosh, three, SLAM. I jumped up from the big splash and quaking through the sand. There was only one creature in the world that could make that sound and it was a creature I would never want near me at this time. Knowing what was to come I stood up, the water coming up to my knees as I stood. Water rolled off my back and wings and dropping back into the pool and water or on the sand. I didn’t bother to get it all off, it gave me energy, energy I would need to get the male titans away that I knew would come after this one. I put my entire weight into every step, making the ground tremble to show I was bigger and better than whoever stood around the corner.

Instead of going around the cliff, I jumped to the top of it as if it was just a rock and stalked toward the other side. The ground was uneven and prickly like coral, but with certain soft plants over the top of some. Some cracked and crumbled under my feet, I could feel them fall apart, but that didn’t bother me, I was used to it and could still move smoothly through.

There on the beach lumbered a new titan, a titan I knew swam in the water, but never came up here. When he was younger, the white parts on his skin was the same color of a pearl, except less shiny. Now every inch of him was covered in scratches and scars from all the fights he got into for dominance. Due to his messy eating that pearl had faded to a salmon color that would not come out. He was a very large titan in some dragon’s case, but I was twenty feet larger than him. Sure enough it was the dragon I referred to as my best friend.

Of course being his first time on land he stumbled around like a whale on sticks, taking each step was like he was trying to learn to tiptoe. His large body shifted onto three of his shaking legs while one took a step forward and it was like that the entire time.

“HEY! What do you think you are doing up here”, I barked, laying down on the giant cliff, tail hanging off the side and my head high. “Gods Ki, how do you do this all the time. It is so dry here and hard to move, plus this sand is so hot and slippery. I feel so heavy and it is so strange. The water is a lot easier to be in”, he said after falling over on his side with a huge thump. Half of him was still in the water so a giant wave off to the side. I narrowed my eyes at him, I trusted no one anymore especially during this time.

“I know that is not the case and don’t call me Ki, names are for humans”, I snarled, almost jumping at him, my muscles flinching under the blubber covering me. No attacking, one who is superior than these hooligans would not attack or get close at this point. I could not trust him, he was a meathead yes, but he was a cunning meat head, I knew him for getting out of a bind he couldn’t fight through. Maybe the fact that he fought with his teeth a lot would have drained the cunning right out of him.

“Oh come on, you use to love that name. You would always insist on everyone calling you that, if they believed in names or not. I thought it was so cute how you would get all happy about that name and so upset when dragons didn’t use it”, he taunted. I jumped at him, stopping inches from his tiny face. I could see the smug sparkle in his eyes, he did have a plan, and I was following with it in instincts. His mouth widened to show off his teeth, almost red as blood they were.

“Easy Ki, you will make your face all wrinkled. I don’t want my gigantic princess to lose her luster”, he kept on talking. Slowly backing up into the water while I was so close to his face he had to crane his short neck back so I wouldn’t smoosh it. I hate it when he called me princess, I was not a princess. And does gigantic mean fat? I am in a better shape that he was, he could barely even stand on land. Oh I wanted to kill him. I didn’t even notice when I lost it and nature got to the best of me.

 

“I will kill that titan”, I roared and knocked a volcanic rock right off of the mountain lake top. I could see it soar through the sky and land in the ocean beyond. I wished one of those boulders would land on him wherever he was in the ocean. It has been nine months, nine months and my temper was getting worse. Every morning, every morning I woke up tired out and lazy, then in the middle of the day I would have enough energy to go grab something from the waters. The food around here was awful, but at least I was far from where all the dragons stayed while in the same state as me.

Hated being pregnant, I was hungry, I was tired, I was grumpy, and I felt like I gained another forty tons. Now I spent my time on another island, at the top of a volcano, in a hot spring with lots of sharp rocks around it. It was almost impossible to find a nice place to lie down. There was barely anything to satisfy my appetite here and I still had four months to go.

Usually mother titans would spend time with their mate and form a pod where everyone is happy and behind a staticy glass screen while everyone smiles and runs into rocks not knowing where they were going. I remembered my now worst enemy coming back up after the ordeal and pestering me to come back in the ocean. He said we should start a pod together and listen to whatever I said. He bribed me with doing all the hunting, do whatever I wanted, take one of the islands for me, but I just sat there angry. Even though, he would not leave me alone. He would follow me around in the water, try and walk around with me on the beach, better to try it at a younger age, and even tried to sleep with me, curling up to my side or putting his head on where I was swollen When I was one month in I flew away while he was asleep on the beach. To really get away from him, I went to the worst place for a pregnant sea titan, well by the other’s standards. 

Personally, I was fine. Yes food was hard to find around here and yes it was colder than I should be exposed to, yes it was full of people wanting to see, but they go away, and yes there are lots of harmful plants here. Hey, I didn’t care, if the calf died at birth, ok less to deal with, if it was small and retarded, eat it I am hungry, if it is able to survive on its own, fine I will just leave it. I would not put my heart out again so it could be injured again, especially with something so fragile as a baby sea titan. 

Anything could happen to those things, the smallest harpoon could kill it, a change in climate could kill it, getting tangled in a net could kill it, volcanoes at the bottom of the ocean could kill it from miles away, sharks could eat it, other dragons could kill it, it could choke on something, it could drown easily, it could easily be killed by oil spills, so much can kill a baby titan. I am shocked that all of my comrades and the other calves survive, hell how did I even survive. Having my calf in this place and putting it in these parts of the ocean will also kill it due to the fumes brought out from an opening in the earth below. Another reason why it was a bad idea to be here.

I wince at the calf worming around inside of me when I thought like that, like it could read my mind. Around me was short trees and shrubs a bright shade of green with flowers the color of blood. The ground was black, the soil was black, everything was black. A thin layer of black sand covered the tops of the volcanic rocks that cooled a long time ago. It was all bubbly and sharp, looking more like thickly tangled bramble than rocks, it felt like it too. The water I lay in was tinged a slight shade of purple from the large amount of iron of chlorine in the chemistry. The water was void of life and the birds around it didn’t even dare to come close to the stuff because drinking it would cause harm to a system like theirs, weak and light. I had no worries though, it was healthy for me.

The good thing about here was the water I was in. That iron and sulfur was in the perfect amount for a mixture that was healthy for the skin and internal organs of a sea titan. No one knows this though, other dragons who live in the sea or not around this would fly away. I had some help from some godly friends that would give me good tips on things like this whenever I was near certain things. For example they told me about a type of fruit down near the ocean that was good for the stomach. They tasted bitter, but at least I didn’t have the stomach problems that came with the usual pregnancies, it was also a very filling snack for some reason, yet they are the size of my eye, a fish that size wouldn’t last a titan five seconds.

Everything around me was quiet and peaceful with only the sound of certain birds singing behind the twisted trees. A blissfully damp breeze blew by my head bringing the scent of fertile land that spread miles away from the ocean. A chocolatey smell also passed by along with the the lovely tinge of grey coca flowers that turned to pods humans farmed. I officially loved this island. 

I could feel the calf roll over and push its head against me. I could feel it was already fully developed, the nose smooth and rounded to a perfect form that was hard to get in calves these days. I couldn’t stop my heart from jolting a little, something I didn’t want if I didn’t want to keep it. As I said, it is dangerous to attach my heart to something like this.

 

“YOU DAMN TITAN I WILL KILL YOU WHEN THIS IS OVER”, I roar in extreme pain that starts deep within me. First it started out as little pains after a long while, then it became stronger and more frequent. To relieve it my instincts told me to push, I did and I began getting uncomfortable. Now it was hard to breath, painful and it was like trying to push out waste that went the wrong way.

A helicopter whirred above me, not to far off the ground, but far enough for me to ignore it. Damn humans, always taking a look at me all the time whenever they thought fit. I really wish they weren’t up there right now, but they were hovering up there for a reason and it most likely had to do with me.

A wave of pain wracked me again and I roared out loud, slamming my tail into a few trees and hearing them crack like large bones and fall with a hiss of leaves. Now with all of the anger and pain waves, my tail was cut and scared, but not deep enough to cause too much pain.

The water was turning a darker shade of purple with a reddish tinge, something that I wasn’t used to. The warm water of the spring was also helping on making me comfortable, making everything inside me feel loser.

“I HATE YOU. DAMN CUNNING MONSTER”, I roar again when I feel the tail leave me and begin to wriggle in the water. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a flash of white like a white fish through there was none. The tiny white fluke flicked droplets of water in the air. It was tinged yellow, not normal.

Wave after wave kept coming, getting stronger and stronger as the calf slowly came out. I could see more of it as I pushed until a bloody mess finally came out and there was a large plop and a wriggling in the water of something alive trying to figure out what was up and what was down. By the way it was struggling I could tell it needed help reaching the surface of the water, but then again all baby titans needed to.

A few months ago I would have gotten up, and flown away, letting the little newborn drown, but looking at it now I felt some kind of hesitation. I recognized the desire to do something that I knew as instinct, instinct to bring the newborn to the surface like what mothers do in the oceans since the calves usually had a ways to go for fresh air. I could see its little black form struggling in such a pathetic manner I thought the feeling was pity. I pulled my tail back beneath the water under the struggling thing and lifted it up, red water and gunk following suit, but rushing off. In its place was a healthy looking baby dragon. He had pitch black delicate skin covering his body that glimmered in the sunlight. His legs were short and stubby looking ending in chubby little toes with no claws whatsoever. His body was skinny for a young sea titan, that was normal and little black eyes glittered on his face, little nostril slits opening and closing with little snorts, one whistled a little bit. Instead of the dorsals that adult titans had, he only had little stumps with the potential of growing to what I had. Everything was normal except for the white part of his coloring. Usually sea titans are born whiter than snow, his skin had a yellowish tinge to it.

_ Ooh, that is good, he will be resistant to cancer _ , a painfully hoarse voice purred in my mind, a voice I haven’t heard before. I had heard three of the gods, but this one was new, and I couldn’t tell who they were and cancer. I was not aware of this “cancer” thing, but calfs with white tails sometimes died of very bad sunburns.

Looking at my calf, I no longer felt any hatred towards the father, I no longer felt empty and alone. All of that was washed away and looking at his stupid looking little face, I felt warm and fuzzy, something I used to feel with my family. There was no way I could resist those unfocused black eyes, the pupil being darker so it they were visibly staring off into distance like a fish. His face was blank and he looked like the funniest thing on earth. If he could have spoken, I would have expected him to say, “Duhhh… hello world… duh”.

Yup that was my calf, that was what he looked like and I knew he would not remember this moment, but I knew he would be different. Maybe even make a life that would set him through history.

 

“Down”, I command my son when we are in the air. He followed my command and folded his barely capable wings to plummit gracefully towards the water, just to open his wings up at the last second when he caught a good wind current he could handle. I prefered to go by air because we could get to where we wanted to go faster than the other titans who swam. He still couldn’t talk, but he could take simple commands and understand certain sentences, he sometimes tries to mimic some of my terms. If he wanted something, he would figure out how to indicate it and whatever it was, I would get it.

As for how I raised him, I didn’t go back with his father like I most likely should have, I stayed where I spent my pregnancy. The yellow tinge went away and his skin was white as snow. When we needed it, we would drink and swim in the river and spent the rest of our time on land. My son liked land more for a reason, prancing around like a fat pony, chasing birds and lizards, trying to run extremely fast. If I had named him I would have called him dash for when he ran on flat ground, he just took off like a little flat demon with wings and a whale’s tail. Then when he was able to fly, which little sea titans learned at a young age, we left. It was early, really early, but it was early enough for the dragons we feed on to have arrived in what humans called Long Island.

It is a fourteen year tradition that every sea titan followed. It didn’t have anything to do with feeding, even though lots of our food came here, it was due to some kind of celebration that our ancestors used to celebrate, but now it was just go over there and sleep for there was too many people on the mainland to go anymore. Desperate to keep the tradition alive, we migrate there every year and hunt there while humans sit on their tiny boats and watch us. Maybe I could catch it early and miss them, hunt in peace with my little son and sleep in peace on the beach again.

Land loomed into view, land I recognized as a natural spire called Long Pike, signal we were arriving in Long Island bay. The water splashed when my wing tip touched the water and water flew everywhere, tinged grey like the sky above. Grey, such a gloomy color, made no sparkle, it made no shadow. A grey sky was a perfect balance of good and bad, every plus and minus balanced to a random state of what will happen. I disliked them, luck was never on my side so that randomness was reverted to bad luck. Little flickers of lightning flashed in them, not referring to a storm, but the dragons that flew in them. I could see the neon and blue wing of a lightning flyer, a dragon who survived off the element of electricity, a common breed around the world. 

As we drew closer to land, I could see the long island maple forest on the edge, all of their weird shaped leaves turning different colors mentioning autumn. Large green stained rocks began poking up from the water as we drew close to a wide beach that was made by celebrating dragons on land. The sand matched the sky, dyed a shade of grey that darkened when kissed by the waves.

Instead of going to the bay, I turned right and lead my calf to a tidepool and divot in the cliff that curved into a horse shoe shape. The cliff was like the rest of them, but covered in land plants that hung down along the rocks as if giving up standing upright. Vines were some of them, but the others were just sad, red, unhealthy plants that hurt when stepped on. Nestled right smack in the middle of the cliffs and on a safe ledge with five trails leading from it was a little beach house. It looked like it was made of drift wood, the roof being made of red bricks and half of it lay deep within a natural cave. The windows were a little foggy and sometimes you could see movement in them. On top of the cliff a car was parked, a little old fashioned version with faded yellow color and a flat form that looked easy to crush. Someone was there and by the looks of it only one person, and maybe a dog who liked little bright toys. I decided to avoid that part and sit behind a dune a mile into the divot. That dune was nestled between the cliff and a wall of sand, plus it was very comfortable with the soft sand.

More dragons than usual flew around the place, small ones chatting happily about something that was happening, something I personally had no care for so I ignored the maple gliders and flying salamanders as they flew around the cliff and landed on that cabin’s window as if desperately wanting to see something inside. Stupid little dragons, what was inside a human home, nothing. Exactly nothing that would be worth to a dragon.

Once on the beach I didn’t hesitate to nudge my son over to the dune and flop down in the sand, no longer able to see the little cottage on the cliff, only piles of sand tall enough to hide me from ground view. The sand felt like silk to me, soft as a bed and the earth gave way to me like a bed. I could feel all the sunshine from days ago come spurting out like water in sea urchins. It smelled like sunshine too, sunshine and high tide waters leaving salt and life around. The next thing I knew I was asleep and hearing the soft snoring of my son next to me.

 

That night I could hear the sound of a woman screaming, “NO”. It was just once, but I could tell it was desperate and full of fear. I could tell it was being muffled by something and it was close, not to far away from where we slept. 

Humans, most likely humans. I wonder what those humans were doing, but that was not my problem. They could be doing that pretending thing they do, I see them do it all the time. Sometimes they do it surrounded by lots of sticks and lights along with other people, sometimes they do it on big canvases. I remember seeing one where this little kid pretended to be looking at giant robots that turned into vehicles. That had a lot of flames and booming sounds, plus scrap metal and yelling.

Maybe they were doing that, but if it woke my calf, I would go over there and have to crush it all. They better know that if they woke my calf, they would end up like those helicopters and that one plane that scared him.

I looked to the side at the tiny black form beside me, he whimpered and rolled to the side away from where the sound came from. Other than that he didn’t wake up, no problem there.

I snorted a bunch of sand away from my nose and tried to sleep again, trying to let the sound of the waves lead me back into sleep. The wind flowed around the sand and bringing up a thin layer of sand into the air just high enough to cover a mouse. Sea dragons chirped and twittered in fear overhead and began swooping around. The sand crackled with the steps of either one animal or two animals with two legs. There was a strangled sound, something like a human calling out under a cloth, this one sounding a little younger than the other scream.

“Harvey are you really sure we should, I mean it is a sea titan we are feeding him to. Don’t you think this is a little cruel, he is just a baby we could just leave him in the sand and someone could find him. He doesn’t have to die”, a voice whispered, just enough for me to hear. “Ed, the boss told us to and what the boss says, we do. If it is throwing the body of a woman’s dead husband off a cliff or feeding a two year old to a titan, we do it. You signed up for this way of life, you follow it”.

Two shadows appeared on the cliff, two shadows in small human shapes, not knowing I was watching them. One was holding something that was struggling, a dragon maybe? A dog? Fish? Whatever it was someone wanted it dead.

“I know, I know, but look at him. I have my own little girl. I-I can’t do that to something with such an innocent look in their eyes. Look he is practically begging me to let him live. Can’t we just hide him somewhere or something”? The first one, Ed, asked again. He was the one holding the struggling thing.

“You are getting soft, Ed. Gimme that”, the other man said and yanked the struggling thing out of the other man’s arms. Harvey didn’t even hesitate to drop the creature and stood there as it rolled down the dune. Slowly my eyes followed the little thing as it slid down and rolled right into my son, bumping against his back. Then without anything in its face it began to scream and wail, a desperate and painful sound that I could remember as the wails of my family as they died. I glared at the kicking creature, not understanding its smell and aura. I only smelled the sea and the dirty scent of the humans above.

Horror filled me as my calf moved and lifted his head up, blinking vaguely at the sky. Then he shook his head and looked down at what was screaming behind him in interest. He shifted so he could roll over and not smoosh the creature in the process. I could see the moon glitter in his curious eyes as he looked down at the creature who continued to scream and kick. On four legs he craned his neck up playfully and chattered at the little thing on the ground. The wailing quieted and the thing kicked less and the young sea titan dipped his head down and sniffed the thing right in the middle.

The wails now completely disappeared and were replaced with a human laugh. “Hey Harvey, it isn’t eating him, maybe he has a chance”, one man said again. “That is the baby you idiot, the babies are always pushovers. The mother is the one who will eat him. Trust me…”

He would have said more, but just then I raised my head in the air and roared angrily. How dare these humans, so filthy, so horrible. They forced that thing down my dunes to wake my baby. It was them and I saw them. Oh it is the worst sin to wake a baby dragon. Especially my baby dragon. There was so many other things that were worse, but a baby dragon… waking it up… it is uncalled for, unjust, sinful, and… and… Hell it is a deed worth the world. The gods frown upon it, all of them, demons frown upon it. The most evil of demons aren’t even that impure to wake my baby. These humans were worse than demons then. I bet that desperate scream was something in shock that they would even think of doing such a thing. My baby. My baby was woken and all around needed to pay for it. First being the ones that could run.

Instead of going to the thing my son was with, I went straight for the men, jumping up faster than they can fall on the ground and snapping them right off the dune. A little bit of sand got in my mouth, the smooth texture running along my tongue tasting of salt and rock. There was also the texture of the human’s clothes and bare skin. I could feel their hair and hard shoes, squirming around desperately. I didn’t hesitate to swallow, feeling their struggling forms slide down my throat as easily as fish or a shark.

I let my familiar anger run free and could see through blurry eyes, the destruction around me. The dunes were no more, neither was that house. There was no tracks left in the sand and the beach was now littered with debris and stone from the cliff. Trees also joined the field, littering in shards of splinters and leaves. Sand was moved from one point on the beach to everything around it, some on the cliffs, some in the sea now, some to its other side. In other words the beach wasn’t in the same shape as before.

The car that used to be on top of the cliff was gone along with any other body on the beach, but I did remember a large van driving away with the rest of the people. My anger had boiled down to calmness so I didn’t have the drive to go chase that car and maybe destroy the highway it was on. Those highways were dragon proof, but not sea titan proof, we are bigger and heavier.

I snorted at the cliff in agitation and lumbered back over to where the dunes used to be, grey patches of wet sand stood where the piled on sand was smacked off of the beach, littering the beach in speckles and splatters. In front of the few remaining dunes lay my little baby, curled up as if asleep once again. His little back was to me, white and black wings on the sand and his tail curled up in front of him.

Only, he was shifting and making little sounds at something that was making little sounds also. I realized he still had the little human sea thing based on the primitive noises he was making with his voice. Towering over my calf I could see he as curled around something small and wearing blue covering. I could see the little wormy fat hands stretching out at my son’s face and it laughing while my son was trying to make it quiet. His round foot came down on the thing, completely covering it which made the creature quiet. Then he lifted his foot up and the thing was still there, quiet for a second, but then going back to making its sounds. 

“Son, what are you doing”? I asked, looking down at his tiny form. He flinched and turned his head up at me. The little creature once again stopped, then began reaching his chubby hands towards me instead. With the moon and stars, I could see his green eyes that seemed to glow and dark blob of fur on top of his head that reflected some of the sky’s silver light.

“What are you doing honey”, I said do my calf, trying to look as kind as possible, because it was more terrifying than when I was angry.

He gave me this guilty look that tried to melt my heart into kindness. Yeah that wasn’t working this time pal.

“Can I keep Percy”, he said with his best baby dragon eyes, eyebrows upwards in a pathetic look of pleading. The stars sparkled in and out of the black orbs.

“What is a Percy”? I asked. There was no such thing I had heard of as a “Percy” unless… Oh no.

The little baby dragon lifted the wiggling human spawn up in the air with his two front legs though he was still laying down. The “Percy” just hung there as if being picked up by a titan wasn’t unusual. The thing still had a stupid grin on its face that made his chubby cheeks look fatter than should be healthy for a creature. Oh how it looked ugly and was it drolling? Oh gross there was something coming out of its nose, was it infected with a virus or something. Better not give it to my son. 

“Please can I keep it. Just as a pet”, the dragon pleaded. I glared at the tiny thing in between his feet as it reached futally up at me. All I could think is how ugly it looked, all fat and chubby with pretty eyes smashed between them. They were the most decent thing to look at and they kept me from turning away in disgust. Humans were the ugliest creatures I had ever seen and this thing was no exception. I don’t care what it turned into when it grew up, it would still be a flat faced, furry, long legged, upright, strange looking creature the breed was. Why would my son want to keep it and where did he get the name Percy. There was no way a this stupid thing had uttered it, mostly because it wasn’t a word. It was something certain people off the Atlantic called each other, the ones who say mate a lot and have tongue sounds different to the people in the continent I was in.

“Sweet baby, why would you want to keep it? It isn’t pretty and it isn’t cute, it's just ugly and loud. Plus it takes a lot of work if it lives long enough”. That’s right, humans die early. The longest known living in dragon country being at the age of eighty or something before it goes into those big white buildings full of sick humans and never come out. Titans could live to a maximum of two hundred years of age, not like you see two hundred year old titans. We become really frail at the age of one hundred and fifty two. Now they get poisoned, harpooned, washed up, or something goes wrong in this polluted world I exist in. This human would die easily and it wouldn’t be me that ends its life.

“Because I want it”, the baby titan snorted, pulling the blue blob down to his underbelly and hugged it while rolling back and forth. He bore a look of fierce determination. 

“Fine, but just this once, I don’t want you to start keeping your dinner as pets again also”, I finally said, being too tired to fight him too much. This baby dragon was really subborn when he wanted something. This something was that little human.

I expected the “Percy” to not last long, humans had the lungs of a bug with the swimming power of a beetle against the mighty power of a newborn sea titan. That thing wouldn’t last a day before it would drown...


	24. The brotherhood of no brotherhood

_ Hello it's me again. I am so sorry, I was on vacation this weekend and I realized I haven’t updated this story since Plankton died. Then I haven’t updated anything since the summer began. I have been going out of town a lot and my sister has been hogging the only computer in our house for the longest amount of time so I gave up for a while and just kept watching Danny Phantom over and over again (I miss seeing that show on TV) and if you are wondering what is with the flashback of the titans’ life, don’t worry it will end. This is the last one, but they are important to the chapter after this. Again I am sorry. _

The sun rose over the sea once again as it always did, the golden rays turning the sky a beautiful shade of orange and turquoise. There was no clouds so the sky was like a dome bigger than any titan that could ever exist. Fleeting darkness slithered over and under the mountains behind the cliffed beach. In between lay a large field of grass and wheat, young so it was tall and soft, easy to lay in. Also good for little humans to hide in, which was what mine was doing.

I jumped around and over the tall stalks, trying to see over the grass that would be eaten by the incredibly tall leupon dragons. A heard of them stood nearby, their green, brown, and yellow scales shining dully as the sunlight took more of the land. Their tall stalky legs allowed them to stand tall in the grass up to their wing tips, six feet above the ground attached to broad chests and slim bodies. They were like short giraffes with elevated back legs and feet like toed hooves. Their snouts were thin and trapezoid shaped lined with little teeth for tearing up grass and molars for chewing the grass. Their horns were fairly short with a web of skin attached to them that ran down their jaw line.

Other than the little twittering jays and Yukum dragons migrating from Japan, I was the only dragon out there with this heard, looking for something in the swampy grass. I put my nose down to the salty water that provided food and a life for the long stalks, salty tides rushing in and out of the small area. Little bits of coral and sea life grew in between the smooth volcanic rocks and black mud and it swayed with the water. Little critters moved around in between them like tiny fish and little bugs that lived in the tide pools. I took one big sniff of the water, hoping for a scent of human in it. There was a faint scent, but I guessed that is where he directed the water away from his trail and spread it around. That sneaky little human, smart in strategizing at times, especially when something came to water, he could do it.

Ok, reading his scent wouldn’t do, I guess I would have to find him another way. 

I raised myself up from the grass on my back legs with my tail to support me and I craned my neck over the green stalks. I could hear cicadas chirping from the thicker stalks and with the sun up a little higher they sang their loudest to welcome the hot day to come. Other than the trails I had made before, there was no disturbance in the large weeds, except for the heard dragons. Did he travel on the weeds I smashed?

I turned around on my path and began searching for the slight indication there was a six year old human hiding in it, a dent, a fallen bussel, a hole, something. Yes I could smell his washed away scent scatter from a trail that he had mainly taken from a patch that could have hid him easily without notice. Looking up I saw the trail lead to the heart of leupon dragons grazing peacefully.

Oh that smart little human, hiding among the dragons that were faster than I, but where was he? Slowly I stalked towards the herd, looking among their legs and backs, along their long fat tails, and around their necks. Then I saw it, a little flash of tan that wasn’t scaled or winged. It also wasn’t slimy like a salamander so it could only be one thing in the entire world.

“Found Ya”, I roared and sprang from inside the heard. Startled leupons jumped and scattered from my path, jumping through the mud and stalks. They were too fast for me to catch, but that wasn’t what I was looking for. Instead my two front feet landed in between a slightly taned, naked, curled up body.

Panting I stared down at the tiny form under me who was breathing heavily in surprise, tiny skinny chest falling at rising with little pants. Skinny arms covered a black furred head and face while legs were tucked underneath his body. Pretty green eyes poked out from behind hands and fingers to look at me and I could see the playfully surprised look in them. Yup he was the ugliest thing any dragon has to lay their eyes on. He reminded the young dragon as a naked monkey ostrich when he stood, now he was a bald pink turtle with little ridges and no shell coming out under his skin and that was a human to a dragon. To every dragon, humans were ugly and pathetic to the point it is a surprise they didn’t go extinct long ago. To certain humans, dragons were ugly and just like any other dragon. It was a balance of ugliness that made each species scream and run away from each other, but he was the human that broke that balance. He actually looked better looking than most humans that were on the sea, even ones his age, but at that time they all looked the same to me.

“From half a moon to the dawn, that is a new record. You get better each year”, the human calf said, uncurling when he knew nothing would accidentally trample him. His long limbs unfurled themselves, clumsy and squishy like a bunch of sticks covered in a thin layer of blubber then some hide, soft, soft, thin and delicate like woven cocoons that people in the asian continent make and sell. One nip and his skin would most likely break under it, small as he was and so easy to tear apart.

“I am still not as good as finding as you though. Your record was ten taps of a claw. That is surprising since you can’t smell anything very well”, the dragon snorted, getting up and slowly walking alongside the stick legged creature. Due to his size the human had to step up a pace to keep up.

“Well the only reason is one, you are easy to find if I climb on a rock and two, you were tapping really loudly. I don’t think I need a head to have found you”, the human said.

His bare feet slapped along the rocks like a large duck and the way he moved while he walked, that couldn’t be natural.

“Oh...I guess I should stop tapping then”? The dragon asked. “Of course big brother. That would definitely help with the problem you have. Then it would take me at least a hundred taps to find you”, he replied.

His arms swayed at his side like drapes of seaweed, the strange long appendages brushing against the dragon’s smooth skin.

“Do you think mother is worried for us, Kyrogre. She did want us to be back before sunrise”, He said again. “Eh what’s the worst she could do”?

 

I hated Hawaii more than I hated eating people, a recent peeve I learned during my first attack on a ship. That age I could tell humans apart. Percy was still better looking than all of them, based on what he saw. He could also tell their emotions and detect different communicative ways that apparently was called languages. For any dragons people from every continent spoke the same way, but now he was used to seeing the different types and found people from the Yellow sea speak differently than ones from the Americas and there was also two types of sea languages in that area.

Then he learned how to read human emotions and make sense of them. Turns out humans lost the survival instinct of hiding how they feel. For animals it is to hide weaknesses, but humans display how they feel and that is why they always acted so weird. They were happy when they turned their lips up, make a strange barking sound called laughing, act brighter, and be around others. When they are sad they act all quiet and distant, sometimes making these wailing noises and shoot seawater from their eyes. When they are angry they yell, growl, hit something, hit someone, roll their eyes, ignore everything, act on instincts and other things. When they are scared it is simple, they do what everything does, they scream, they run, and they hide most of the time. When Percy was afraid I watched as he would either stand his ground or hide which was almost all the time when he was younger, but I remember when he was so useless he just sat there and screamed with that seawater coming out of his eyes. Then he learned how to walk, talk, and grow bigger and he still did that till mother got sick of it and gave him something to fear more than large black dogs with glowing red eyes or that big half bull thing that mother destroyed part of an island over for coming at both of us.

Anyway, I hated Hawaii. It stunk like mating sea titans, humans, and mostly volcanic stuff. We usually went to the island next door, but it still stank in the water so we were mostly up at the pool where I was born, or at least on the island itself. Mother always went hunting during those times and let me and him stay in one spot until she came back. It was boring and made me hungry so I didn’t like it that much. Percy liked it less. He hated being in one spot too long. Eventually he would pace, knead the sand out of boredom, sleep, splash in the water, or dig a hole. Anything that kept him busy, but it was never enough for me.

“Brother what are you doing”, I groaned, watching him from where I was flopped on my back in the sand. We were on the beach waiting for mother to return, surrounded by cliffs she destroyed a month ago when Percy, now my adopted brother, got attacked by a giant crab that popped out of the waves. Rocks were scattered all over the place and trees were torn up for a mile around along with one of the human dwellings nearby to have a giant boulder in the roof. 

Percy crouched on a rock nearby and was making the water do fancy shapes in the air. Little fish swam in the floating streams, twisting up in the air and back into the water like some sort of water slide. The strings constantly moved around him like ribbons before disappearing and getting replaced by new ones.

It wasn’t unusual that he could do that with water, but this trick was new and he looked utterly bored with it, twirling his finger around to make it move while watching the little fish move around. 

“Oh just being bored. I mean what else is there to do. We can’t go swim or leave this small stretch of sand. Let’s not forget that we are hungry and mother isn’t back yet”, he said with boredom. His green eyes stared at nothing, his eyelids drooped a little like he was too tired to keep them open, but to restless to keep them closed.

My stomach growled in agreement with him and I shoved my face deeper into the rocky sand. The only thing ahead of us was the fairly dark waters of the ocean, darker than usual because of the storm clouds overhead. They didn’t look bad, just darker than the fog that rolled over everything and lighter than the black hurricane clouds that rolled over large expanses of sea. They held rain.

Suddenly I was blasted by a spout of water coming straight out of the waves like a hose. It was a rough amount of water and it immediately got me to my feet. When it stopped I picked my foot up and wiped it out of my eyes, spitting some out while I was at it. 

When my vision was clear, I could see Percy, trying not to turn his lips up and holding back his laughing, his bare shoulders shook in effort. His green eyes no longer looked bored, but wide and playful, full of mischief and joy.

“Why you little eel”, I growled playfully at him and knelt down, ready to pounce. When I did I flapped my wings to get higher up in the air since I still couldn’t fly, reaching the height of where he was flattening himself to the rock. He lept off the rock before I landed, causing my feet to come down on cold stone instead of his warm floppy body that had been there a second before. I roared in frustration and turned to where he stood on the sand, new ammunition for attack.

He sprayed me with another spout of water, this time it only hitting my shoulder to knock me to the side a bit.  I jumped off the rock at him, but he ran away, giving me a reason to chase after him.

Every time I got close he would turn another direction that I couldn’t turn fast enough for. He kept using that same strategy, sometimes feigning a turn then going the other direction, still staying out of my reach.

Eventually I reached out a foot and knocked him too the ground where stood on his arms to keep him down. In attempt to escape he struggled underneath me, but there was no escape. He tried to kick, but I sat down on his lower half so all he could move was his head. His body went limp beneath me as he gave up, he just laid there and panted, smiling up at me with his eyes sparkling with joy and exhaustion. I liked that color green, I liked looking into his eyes since no matter what they were the prettiest part of him.

Suddenly he stopped, going stiff and looking around worriedly. I hadn’t noticed, but the air felt heavy with danger, like something was watching us. Percy’s green eyes widened with horror and he froze. I turned my head slowly to find two black eyes staring at me from an almost completely black sea titan, sitting and staring at us in the waves. He wasn’t as big as mother, but bigger than I was and most likely older than I was. Both that meant bad news for an unprotected baby sea titan and young human standing on a beach with limited amount of space.

I had seen him before, he was a titan that mother told us to stay away from, a titan who wasn’t friendly, a titan that everyone feared more than her.

Before I knew what happened, he jumped at us, jaws wide and coming straight towards me. I heard Percy momentarily shout my name and push me away, but I found myself inches from his jaws. However when he lifted his head up I wasn’t caught between his teeth, but to my horror Percy was. His lower half was gone in the monster’s mouth with the other half hanging out. Percy was sitting up and banging his small fists on the titans scared face, screaming.

“Let go of me you monster, let go of me”. “Percy”, I roared and tried to jump up at the behemoth. Without a second of hesitation the titan lifted his foot and pinned me underneath it. I flailed under the weight of his foot, staring hoplessly up at my brother, who was yelling. Drops of water and blood landed on the ground with a splat, staining the sand a dark color.

“Let my brother go”, Percy screamed, punching the titan in the eye, but that made it worse. The titan clamped its jaws harder on his middle causing Percy to wince in agony and shut up. More blood splattered down into the wave, not just one drop, but seven at a time before fading to a steady drip. 

I roared helplessly, only being able to watch as the little human hung on for dear life through the pain. The little human that he cared so dearly for.

There was an ear splitting roar that broke through it all and the large black dragon suddenly lurched as a titan bigger than him crashed down on him. Mother, with more anger than I had ever seen her have, bit down onto the dragon who, roared in pain, dropped Percy and let me go.

I jumped up as fast as possible and I beat my wings as hard as I can to catch the falling mass of red, black and pale. His body fell into my talons as I slammed into the shallow water, trying to use my body to shield him the best I could.

The water was all over the place as the fight went on, carried out by mother and the bad titan, and I was scared to look at what I had caught. Slowly I looked at Percy, finding him almost in half, a deep gash put into his side along with the holes from the titan’s teeth. Blood went all over the place, in the water, on my underbelly and all over Percy. There was so much of it, too much of it. He shouldn’t be losing this much blood. How could I stop it? How could I get him to stop dying?


	25. Gods, real and fake

_ Hey sorry I haven't updated. I have been buisy loving high school. I am so glad I am out of my old school, it is so much fun here. Also the last three chapters are important. Percy will surely have huge problems, but let's see where our most destructive dragon has been shall we. _

“Dublin”! Annabeth shrieked it complete shock. Her eyes were wide and she was getting salt spray in her eyes, but she actually listened to what Tyson said.

“Yup. I even caught a leprechaun, but Kinana smooshed it and roared at me”, Tyson said sadly. Tyson was a big guy so he could have easily mistaken a random person as a leprechaun.

It had been an entire day since the island and we were riding all the way back to Florida on the back of mother. She of course had protested to this, destroying another part of the island until I convinced her otherwise. She had to keep her back out of the water the entire time to keep everyone from drowning or flying into the ridiculous currents. Everyone was surrounding Tyson, listening to him reenacting what happened to them and how he became acquaintances with Percy’s mother. As expected she had almost leveled Dublin until someone got enough tranquilizers in her to calm her down. Then she fell asleep on the now expanded beach. That is where Tyson washed up on board and followed her around until she let him climb on her back to try and get back on course.

“I haven’t been to Dublin before, it isn’t supposed to be a destination for titans, I hear the water is freaking cold”, I said to Mother who snorted.

“But… It’s Dublin! Percy, you saw your mother last in Florida right? How did she end up in Dublin? That’s all the way across the Atlantic ocean and a hell a ways north. And that fast. This is totally defying the laws of the ocean since there is no current that can take a sea titan from Florida to Ireland”, Annabeth yelled, standing up and pacing along mother’s back. Mother splashed the water with her tail to make her stop since it is annoying to have little humans crawling around on your back. “Well I am asking you oh son of the sea titan”.

“I have no idea Annabeth. I don’t understand why this is happening either. It is surprising that mother ended up in Ireland, but Kyrogre and beeping somehow ended up in California…”

“They are in CALIFORNIA”! Nico and Annabeth yelled in unison. Both of their voices together startled Grover who fell over into the titan’s back backwards.

“It might be Poseidon’s fault”, Clarisse said where she was laying around with her back to the group, “I hear there is a big problem with the big three fighting and it is making weird things happen. Take the zombie attack in Gettysburg. All the dead soldiers rose from the dead, picked up sticks and started swinging at the air. And then there was that huge Tsunami in Japan that the media blamed on freak winds. Maybe the fighting is affecting the elements like currents. That is why everyone is ending up in weird places like Dublin or California”.

“That is right, I almost totally forgot about that. Its another reason why when we get back to the mainland we are dragging this one to Olympus”, Annabeth said, jerking her thumb at me.

“Hey”! I yelled in protest turning over so I was standing. I could do that since I am not wearing shoes. Annabeth stood up too and glared at me. I could see her muscles clench if I tried to escape she would attack and take me down. “I am not going to Olympus. I don’t need the gods or want to be near them”.

“It is in your blood Percy, you can’t run from them and if you don’t all of us will be in huge trouble, there could be a war with the gods and it will destroy everything. Whatever is going on in Olympus it has to do with you”.

“The Olympian gods are just giant babies that are fighting. How is this my problems. I mean look at them, they are so pathetic they can’t take care of their own young. And it doesn’t stop there. They have more and more offspring that they don’t take care of, leaving what they created to die off in the world and then when something goes wrong with them they use their offspring as pawns as if they are more important”.

“Well they are important Percy”.

“What makes them important”,I snarled, “If one of them dies it is like another seagull dying on the sand.  _ Nothing happens _ . Trust me, it has happened before and back then gods were more important. Tell me Annabeth are the gods important to anyone anymore, they are just history in museums and stories mothers tell their children to make them go to sleep. There is nothing useful about them and they cause more problems than they fix. I know you think that since you know of real gods. You have been raised by a real god. The Olympians are just figures of imagination. They were born from nothing, but the mind. Nightmare was born from Athrodox and since then creatures die of weakness, being stillborn, starvation. He is the reason deer run from cougars and Sailfin dragons swim and hide from sea titans. If he dies then the entire system falls into disarray. Fear won’t exist and everything would die out. The creation gods would have to start over from scratch. If Zeus dies the sky will stay the same. The winds will stay the same and lightning strikes will stay the same”.

Annabeth hung her head in defeat and ceased to speak. I let out a long breath, having it finally over and sat back down. Arguing was a pain, especially since I don’t do it often. It was by my hate for being a pawn that got me through it.

Nico reached out an arm, worry on his face, and retracted it deciding not to.

“Can we please get to the elephant in the room. Annabeth said she was raised by this Nightmare guy, then there was Percy and his ‘true gods’. Who are they anyway”, Clarisse asked. Nico looked up and nodded.

“Well it starts a long time ago. There was the monster born from the great bang that made this world, it split into two sides, one being creation, Alacargro, and the other destruction, Athrodox. Together those two created the earth and life. From the first life, Athrodox gave birth to the dragon of death as we call him.”, Percy started.

“From then on as life progressed Alacargro had a daughter and died years after and that daughter took after her mother and continued to create. The creation gods followed that rule, what is born must die and that was the first law of the world. As time progressed more like the god of death were born, one of them being the one who raised me, Nightmare, the god of weakness. There are now seven of them and they call them the seven dragons of destruction. They didn’t follow creations rule, they didn’t need to. Then humans began trying to make sense of the world they live in, making up gods like our parents. That is all there is to know, since history is long and hopeless I won’t go into any details”, Annabeth continued

“Percy how can you tell if you meet one of the gods”, Nico asked, now completely hooked on the information.

“Well for one their power. If you meet one of the destruction gods they radiate power. Creation gods you can’t tell. I think the current one is Windego and if you met her walking around in the streets you would only know her by how strange she looks. I hear she has a skull like head and large antlers”.

“I know our gods are pricks, but if you ran into one in the streets, could you talk to it like a normal person”, Clarisse asked?

“Yep, but they are often nuts. If you ran into Insamnia, the god of insanity she will probably end up talking about her latest victim and all of your deepest darkest secrets as well as stuff that would gross you out. Some however think they are high and mighty, but yeah they are fairly easy to talk to”.

“Nightmare is kind of hard to talk to, he thinks certain people are insignificant and since he knows almost everything he hates hearing what he already knows. And it is best not to look him in the eye”.

“Cool can you....” Nico was stopped by Kinana Roaring in announcement to their arrival in Florida.

“Finally, I need to pee”, announced Grover, jumping up and dancing on his hooves in a impatient manner.

There was also something there that troubled them, a giant cruise ship with a golden lady tied and screaming to the front. There were a bunch of huge bulking shapes on the deck. Annabeth got to her feet again and glared at the ship, Nico grabbed the black sword on his belt and his muscles tensed.

I could smell monsters, lots of them, and a people too, metal and other things. Yes, it was just like the tunnel. It was Luke’s army, and something told me he wasn’t just passing by. No, this would end in blood.


End file.
